Our contemporary society experiences a disturbing paradox: we have elevated well-being to the status of an absolute, but at the same time, we have lost the ability to give meaning to suffering. Pain, which could be a teacher, has been reduced to an enemy to flee from.

Victimhood—so prevalent in public and private discourse—encloses the subject within their own wounds, turning them into hostages to their pain. And absolute presentism, fuelled by digital immediacy and the logic of consumption, closes off memory and silences any openness to the eternal. Only the now matters: instant pleasure, relief on social media. In this climate, hope fades because it has no roots.

Two perspectives, one truth

Two voices, separated in time but close in soul, share the same intuition: pain, far from being solely destruction, can become a fruitful memory and an opening to transcendence.

Pain: wound and possibility

The passage of time, the fleeting and the uncontrollable, is sung by Imagine Dragons in Believer:

Imagine Dragons – Believer: https://open.spotify.com/track/0pqnGHJpmpxLKifKRmU6WP?si=htr9_9f3QPSrg9va-RDlEA

And when it seems that everything is falling apart, Coldplay opens a window to hope:

Coldplay – Viva la Vida: https://open.spotify.com/track/1mea3bSkSGXuIRvnydlB5b?si=bQaA6wUmRnaiWg-Prah61Q

The roots: memory and salvation

Memory rescues what we’ve lived and gives depth to the present. Aitana sings:

Aitana – Vas a quedarte: https://open.spotify.com/track/0fwIHsKXNEcb57u2um7z9I?si=2Z0NASfyRUaeAWA4K60vQQ

Vetusta Morla also sums it up in a luminous song:

The Rapture – Gente luminosa: https://open.spotify.com/track/0q5Nu3MZKi7JX1kVgk7d9v?si=oKSsEkHHRLOKJ57Ov8xE7Q

Transcendence: openness to meaning

Man is fulfilled only when he transcends himself, when he lives for something greater than himself.

Avicii – Wake Me Up: https://open.spotify.com/track/1jJci4qxiYcOHhQR247rEU?si=ET8dB3XmTb2paCMx3pzWaA

Diego Torres – Color Esperanza 2020: https://open.spotify.com/track/3T07pNAEVr9adeIG9i1ex4?si=7UqJmru5T8S-KOuHXfgR0w

Sadness and joy

Sadness can be devouring, but it can also be transformed into a gift. Joy, on the other hand, is the fruit of a profound choice.

Pharrell Williams – Happy: https://open.spotify.com/track/60nZcImufyMA1MKQY3dcCH?si=rBhppHz7S6aDBe7naqQp6Q

Marc Anthony – Vivir mi vida: https://open.spotify.com/track/3QHMxEOAGD51PDlbFPHLyJ?si=sDhLAY1hTX-DvlK2pu_bFw

True joy is not a chewing gum that runs out, but a journey that knows tears and turns into Thanksgiving.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; I say again, rejoice.” (Phil 4:4-5)

Freeing oneself from chains doesn’t mean eliminating pain, but rather learning to integrate it as a teacher. Memory and transcendence show us that suffering can be transformed into meaning, sadness into conversion, and joy into fulfilment.