Feb 25 Sun
Suffering is universal on this earth. No one escapes it, not even animals. Why suffering exists is a mystery: that is, it is only partly intelligible.
We can have faith that God permits suffering to bring about a greater good. Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce greater good (ST 1.2.3.).
Sometimes we can see the good that God brings out of evil, sometimes we cannot.
God respects human freedom by allowing our actions to have real consequences, and sometimes those consequences cause great suffering. For example, God allows the thief to steal, and that means the thief really does deprive people of their property.
We can glimpse that somehow suffering and death are the consequences of sin, yet suffering existed on this earth long before the first sin was committed.
We can see how witnessing suffering can unleash in us compassion and care, which makes us more human.
Through our own suffering, we can see that we are vulnerable, and need God, and the help of other human beings. Suffering can make us humble and remove our individualistic tendencies.
Some suffering seems fair, as when criminals are punished. But other suffering seems totally unjust and we feel that God should not permit it, for example, the suffering and death of an innocent child or an innocent child becoming an orphan.
Three points will shed light on the problem: First, in becoming man, God took on our human condition and suffered with us.
Second, he transformed the meaning of our suffering: it is now part of his work of redemption.
Third, through his suffering and death, he overcame death, and opened the gate of eternal life in heaven to us: He transformed death from a pit into a door, from an end into a beginning.
Lent is a time in which we do penance. This means we take on some discipline to make up for our sins, and to improve our character. This discipline makes us suffer a little. This suffering is a mortification, that is, a small death, to kill some of our bad qualities, if possible. These practices help us become humble and aware of our need for God. They may also make us more compassionate, because they help us see what others are going through.
The Christian response to another’s suffering is kindness and mercy, and to alleviate that suffering if we can. What are some things we might be able to do to alleviate others’ suffering?
We can pray for them.
We can offer their ordeal to God for them.
We can be with them.
We can let them talk, and listen to them.
We can do little things for them that please them.
We can help them in a way they want to be helped.
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