The “valley of tears” notion, from some Catholic prayers and concepts, is that while there’s much beauty and good in this world, there is also much suffering due to the fall and subsequent corruption, death, and separation from God, which wasn’t mans’ original condition. So here we can witness and experience both good and evil, seeing the handiwork and evidence of God simultaneous to what it’s like to live apart from Him. As good as this life can be, it has also been hell for many and in any case is nothing in comparison to that which we believe God wants for us-the best aspects of this world are only a dim foretaste of the beauty of eternity. So for me, this life is sort of a school or testing ground where we come to understand what Adam & Eve didn’t yet know-that nothing in creation can make us happy-only God, Himself, has that capacity, and the things of this world should become less and less important as we learn that lesson. It’s about *our *choice just as it was about Adam & Eves’ choice. And if we’re not so sold out as to choose only God as worthy of our love before all else, then He has mercifully allowed for an intermediate state where a final purgation will finally show and convince us of this fact. God’s purpose with us, I believe, is to mold people of character, without forcing the issue, into creatures who are truly capable of seeing and acknowledging for themselves His awesome majesty and worthiness of the fullness of our love.
He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent. – Saint Augustine
I haven’t thought so much about the mental health issue-other than that it can mitigate culpability, naturally. Perhaps in purgatory we are healed of these things and thus freed from their influences which hinder us from knowing the truth.
