For many people, the fact that suffering exists is an obstacle to faith in a merciful God. As a loving Father, God does not make man suffer but He allows it, even bringing beauty and goodness out of suffering.
Human beings were not meant to suffer but were created to live in friendship with God and with each other. The Original Sin of Adam and Eve harmed those relationships, allowing sin and suffering to enter into the world.
Because man was created to be in the presence of a loving God who would provide for all of his needs, he suffers when he encounters evil, experiences some sort of loss, or is deprived of something.
Supernaturally united to each other as the Mystical Body of Christ, when one member of the body suffers it impacts the entire body. Jesus, as the Head of the Body, also shares in the suffering of his Mystical Body,
God entered into suffering and transformed it into a great act of love when He sent his only Son. Jesus freely accepted his own suffering on the Cross, providing an example for all men to follow in their own suffering.
A person’s own pain and suffering can become a participation in Jesus’ Passion if they accept it and offer it back to Him. In this way their suffering becomes redemptive and a source of grace for themselves and for the Church.
Catholics do not know how how God will use their suffering, but because Jesus conquered sin and death by his suffering they recognize that good can come from their own pain, loss, and challenges if they unite them to his Cross.
Simply complaining about evil and loss is not Christian suffering and does not contribute to the treasure that could be stored in Heaven.
It’s hard to imagine the reality of human suffering:
Suffering has a purpose:
For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
2 Corinthians 1: 5-7
The central image of Christianity is one of suffering:
All pain passes through God’s hands first:
Jesus entered into the depth of the human experience:
Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which He conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus “the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” It is in Christ’s Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth “the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe”.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 272
Faith is tested in suffering:
Suffering is an opportunity to show trust in God:
Suffering with Christ and suffering in Christ:
Within each form of suffering endured by man, and at the same time at the basis of the whole world of suffering, there inevitably arises the question: why? It is a question about the cause, the reason, and equally, about the purpose of suffering, and, in brief, a question about its meaning. Not only does it accompany human suffering, but it seems even to determine its human content, what makes suffering precisely human suffering. It is obvious that pain, especially physical pain, is widespread in the animal world. But only the suffering human being knows that he is suffering and wonders why; and he suffers in a humanly speaking still deeper way if he does not find a satisfactory answer. This is a difficult question, just as is a question closely akin to it, the question of evil. Why does evil exist? Why is there evil in the world? When we put the question in this way, we are always, at least to a certain extent, asking a question about suffering too.
Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, 11 February1984
Good can come from suffering:
Our lives are part of God’s mysterious plan:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Not all religions are equal:
Share this page with friends and family to start a conversation about your faith.
Don’t miss a post. Learn more about the Catholic Church and strengthen your Catholic faith.
Find more Fiercely Catholic video issues here.
Subscribe here.
