How to explain the meaning of suffering

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hamburglar

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How do I explain to someone the meaning of suffering? In particular, I am looking to explain what it means to “offer up” your sufferings and “unite them to Christ’s suffering on the Cross.”
 
I just had a wonderful experience with redemptive suffering. It happened just days before Lent.
For the past three years, I’ve been so serious about my re-conversion of heart, asking the Lord to use me as His instrument, to make me humble. I’ve been closer to the Blessed Sacrament and praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Holy Rosary and meditating on His word, every day.
Before loosing my job, I was humiliated at work as I’ve never being in my life. First, I did not understand why it was happening to me, it was totally unreal, then I started realizing that this was the answer to my prayers. How can I be humble if not through humiliation, right?
Two weeks after that, I became so ill, almost die. It was the mercy of God someone found me alive at home and rushed me to the hospital not before receiving the last sacrament. This time, it came so clear to me His message. I’ve been a recipient of His Mercy, He answered to my prayers. I received humilliation and I was an instrument of His mercy.
I can’t describe with words but all I know is God’s name is Love. He uses our suffering united to His to draw us closer to himself because He knows we’ll never be truly happy until we rest in Him (St. Augustine) God mysteriously is within us in our trials and sickness, when we abandon ourselves to his Will.
Romans 12 describes this better. Also, praying daily the traditional prayer of offering helps us to to understand about redemptive suffering.
Blessed be the God of Mercy!!
 
hamburglar said:
How do I explain to someone the meaning of suffering? In particular, I am looking to explain what it means to “offer up” your sufferings and “unite them to Christ’s suffering on the Cross.”
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When sin is committed, in order to be forgiven you must be sorry. However, you still have to “pay” for what you did. You can make up for it on earth (i.e. pay for the broken window, etc.) and if you do not or are not able to make up for it on earth, you make up for it in purgatory. This is the process of purgation of the soul. The cleansing of the soul in order to get into heaven. The absence of the presence of God is the suffering endured which cleanses the soul in purgatory. However, any suffering you choose to do on earth WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING UP FOR YOUR SINS OR THE SINS OF OTHERS, can also be a purgation of your soul. Making the decision to use suffering for the good of mankind or to make up for sins is what is meant by “offering it up”. If you suffer (which we all do at one point or another in life) and DO NOT “offer it up”, it is pretty much wasted and for nothing. God allows our suffering in order for us to acknowledge our need for Him and to take advantage of the fact that we can use it for our own salvation or the salvation of others by “offering it up” or “applying it towards our sins or the sins of mankind”. This is one classic way God turns evil (our suffering on earth) into good (our salvation gained by it). We will endure suffering whether God allows us to use it for salvation or not. I think it’s an awesome gift that He allows us to “profit by it” as Padre Pio states. Suffering is a wonderful opportunity that many don’t usually think about. When suffering comes into our lives, we tend to complain and do everything in our power to fix it. However, if you take the opportunity afforded to you by God, you can use the suffering (which we must endure in any event) for the good of mankind.

Padre Pio said “Suffering is a gift from God. Blessed is he who knows how to profit by it”.

That is why during the season of Lent when our main focus is on repentence, the Church suggests prayer, penance and almsgiving. These are all ways to lessen our temporal punishment due to sin, but the best way is penance - which is suffering. Some saints used to wear hair shirts or put pebbles in their shoes. Some saints have received the stigmata (the wounds of Christ) and suffered Christ’s actual pain themselves. These saints knew that when properly used, they could indeed profit by their suffering.

I hope that makes sense. It really is hard ot explain. Hopefully, someone else will come along to this thread and do a better job of it.
 
I recommend that you read this encyclical from John Paul II on exactly what you’re talking about.

This is a quote from that apostolic letter:
In the Paschal Mystery Christ began the union with man in the community of the Church. The mystery of the Church is expressed in this: that already in the act of Baptism, which brings about a configuration with Christ, and then through his Sacrifice—sacramentally through the Eucharist—the Church is continually being built up spiritually as the Body of Christ. In this Body, Christ wishes to be united with every individual, and in a special way he is united with those who suffer. The words quoted above from the Letter to the Colossians bear witness to the exceptional nature of this union. For, whoever suffers in union with Christ— just as the Apostle Paul bears his “tribulations” in union with Christ— not only receives from Christ that strength already referred to but also “completes” by his suffering “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”. This evangelical outlook especially highlights the truth concerning the creative character of suffering. The sufferings of Christ created the good of the world’s redemption. This good in itself is inexhaustible and infinite. No man can add anything to it. But at the same time, in the mystery of the Church as his Body, Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering. In so far as man becomes a sharer in Christ’s sufferings—in any part of the world and at any time in history—to that extent he in his own way completes the suffering through which Christ accomplished the Redemption of the world.
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Thanks to the original poster and the replies. I myself have wondered this before. At the present time, I have multiple family members going through suffering. I will be sure to pass this along!
 
Suffering is the instrument with which God allows to purify us. If we are going to be in the presence of an infinitely pure, holy, and loving God, we have to be fit to be in His presence. We have to be completely purified otherwise we could not tolerate being in His presence. Just as gold is purified in fire so must we. We have to be completely freed from concupiscence, (the inclination to sin). We either go through the fire here or in purgatory. We do actually have to take up our cross and follow Him. As Fr. Corapi like’s to say… no Cross, no crown… no pain, no gain.

Paul says in Colossians 1:24 Now I am rejoicing while suffering for you as I complete in my flesh whatever remains of the Messiah’s sufferings on behalf of his body, which is the church.

The way I read that is although Jesus sacrifice on the Cross was complete, and sufficient for our salvation, He allows us to participate in His sacrifice on Calvary. A way to think of it in a practical sense is this. Uniting our sufferings to the sufferings of Christ Through frequent reception of the Eucharist, and confession, is the most perfect prayer we can make to God on behalf of others. It is a selfless prayer, because it costs us to make the prayer of suffering for the benefit of others. The greater the suffering, the greater the benefit for the salvation of others, and in the process we get purified so we can enjoy the beatific vision in Heaven. This is something all the saints understood and participated in greatly. It is also very difficult to think about sinning when you’re hurtin.

Saint Pio said, “souls are always purchased by the same coin… suffering!”
 
hamburglar said:
How do I explain to someone the meaning of suffering? In particular, I am looking to explain what it means to “offer up” your sufferings and “unite them to Christ’s suffering on the Cross.”
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I would suggest reading the Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris by JPII
 
hamburglar said:
How do I explain to someone the meaning of suffering? In particular, I am looking to explain what it means to “offer up” your sufferings and “unite them to Christ’s suffering on the Cross.”
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Hamburglar,
Great name and great question. But here’s the thing, if I were to try to explain the inner workings of a computer to a friend, I would go, with my friend, to an electrical engineer and/or computer scientist.

Unless you are an expert, may I suggest you visit a priest in whom you have confidence, bring the questioner, and have a great discussion, which could lead to…???

Short of that, try Pope John-Paul II book on suffering.
"John Paul II and the Meaning of Suffering: Lessons from a Spiritual Master "

Good luck.
 
I’ve asked this question on the Ask an Apologist forum twice. They either can’t answer or won’t.

Can anyone here explain what the CC means when they talk about “the meaning of suffering”?
 
All of those posts on our suffering make sense to me.and I am able to explain adult suffereing. It is much harder though, to explain why innocent children suffer when people challenge if God is loving or not. All I can say when asked is that life on Earth is not supposed to be free of suffering, Heaven is. I explain also that God can help us gain something good from something bad - thoughts on the suffering innocent children challenge?
 
I think much more needs to be said to all of us about God’s Promise and Suffering. It is a hard subject for us to grasp correctly. Here’s how I see it at this point in my life:

Each of us is imperfect. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. We suffer sooner or later to varying degrees for unknown lengths of time because of our imperfections. We suffer from the imperfections of others. And we cause suffering in others because of our imperfections. Of course we all try to avoid suffering, but we have to know that suffering happens. That’s life.

Christ, being the Son of the Living God, is PERFECT in every way. Yet He took on great suffering and death because He loves us. We are called to be Christ like. In part, that means we can join our suffering with His suffering by offering our personal suffering up in reparation for our personal sins and the sins of others. This is very hard to do, especially when our suffering seems more than what we think is our fair share.

Christ’s Promise is to be with us in all things, especially in our suffering. But we have to be open to His Love and Compassion. We have to trust and hope in Christ. This is very hard, especially when we are suffering.

In the periods of our lives when we are not suffering, it is prudent to build our relationship with Christ and store up graces we can call upon in our suffering periods. If we choose to not know Christ in our good times, it is very hard to know Him in our tough times. Not impossible, but harder. Often, it is our suffering that brings us to a fuller relationship with Christ. But the danger is that our suffering could cause us to abandon Him.

So, developing and maintaining a relationship with Christ is very important. We have to realize that suffering happens, sometimes through no fault of our own. We have to prepare ourselves as best we can and then keep our trust in Christ. To do all this, we need good priests, the Sacraments, and better education.
 
Ivan Karamozov [although a fictional character] was described as an atheist who believed in God. However, he took the position that he absolutely rejected God [and so was an atheist in this sense]. The reason he did so was because of the suffering of innocent little children.

He argued that any God who allowed a new-born innocent child to have some horribly painful condition was unworthy to be worshipped. He argued that, even if there was some sort of ‘vicarious’ good which may come from this later, this was not enough to justify the terrible suffering of any innocent baby or child.

If he put this argument to me I really couldn’t find an argument to persuade him he was wrong in rejecting God.

If God is ‘Love’ why does he bring such terrible suffering to innocent children? Of course, this does not include suffering due to the free will of the mother in smoking, drinking, taking drugs, etc. But of children born to mothers who are in every sense good mothers who would never do anything to harm their unborn child.
 
PCM said:
All of those posts on our suffering make sense to me.and I am able to explain adult suffereing. It is much harder though, to explain why innocent children suffer when people challenge if God is loving or not. All I can say when asked is that life on Earth is not supposed to be free of suffering, Heaven is. I explain also that God can help us gain something good from something bad - thoughts on the suffering innocent children challenge?
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I think it sounds like an excuse to me. And if my child were suffering – or, for example, had been tortured to death by a maniac, which happens all too often in this world these days, and in the trial and during and afterwards the multitudes concentrated on the poor, poor, pitiful criminal and turned its collective back on my child, anybody who came to me with this kind of story would be lucky to escape with her skin intact.

My youngest sister was driven right out of the church by people trivializing her suffering in this kind of sanctimonious bleating, and twenty years later she has not returned, nor does she have any desire to do so. Telling her that God did it deliberately would certainly not change her mind.

Personally I believe suffering is part of the human condition and that, as they say, stuff happens. If you are run down by a drunk driver and paralyzed for life, it is not because God thought that would be good for you – but rather because some weak-willed moron drank more than he could handle and then thought he could drive home and nobody would be the wiser. And odds are pretty good that he is not a first time offender.

Or, as happened here recently, a man who had beaten his wife twice before and been jailed twice before – the last time for SEVENTEEN DAYS, and after that stern finger-wag came to her house and shot her in the head, only three days after the limp and sorry judge let him free for the second time – and she was so close to death that they were standing there waiting to harvest her organs, but she survived to see him today get sentenced to 22 years, which in Canada means nothing, really … is that man Gods instrument to purify her for heaven, or is he something a little bit less?

Sorry to be so emphatic, but this is one of those subjects that grind my teeth. Who on earth would want a God who would do that kind of thing to people deliberately?
 
In my experience suffering comes when cleansing of the soul is required.It is said that pride comes before a fall and I have found that in my life when one basks in ones glory of achievements and is completely indifferent to the problems of others Gods way of putting you back on track is suffering.I have found that praying to the Holy Spirit every day protects us from suffering and also makes suffering easier to bear.Jesus Chrst will come to ones aid if one has complete faith in him.We all have crosses to carry in this world so that when we cross the threshold we are completely cleansed and worthy to enjoy eternal glory
 
Ultimately it as a mystery which we may attempt to fathom but nobody here can provide the exact blueprint, purposes of suffering to the final detail. Pope John Paul the Second called suffering from evil the Mysterium Iniquitatis but pushed us all in the right direction in overcoming it. We do have our Faith to fall back on and anyone, no matter how saintly, will suffer at some point whether they need a cleansing or not.

Saint Paul famously in 2 Corinthians 12 was not exempt from his own intense personal suffering which he three times! begged the Lord to take away but it was not. How much more worthy are we personally than St. Paul to avoid suffering? Paul ultimately arrived at the beautiful paradox and answer that he finally understood that Christ’s Grace was all he needed and that when he is weak, he is strong! As the Lord told Paul :" My power is made perfect in (your) infirmity". The cross is nothing to be ashamed of.

It is, as the late C.S. Lewis acknowledged in his seminal The Problem of Pain much easier to describe how suffering comes about by the granting of Free Will to us (i.e. that, should every parent be given a heads-up by God when their child was in mortal danger, one could only ask how much further divine warnings should be allowed to enter into creation before free will became worthless), than it is to acknowledge the deep, heartrending nature of suffering. Indeed, C.S. Lewis himself experienced the torment of facing his spouse suffer in the end and had a crisis of conscience.

Bernadette of Lourdes, who helped so many thousands to cures and healings in, irony of ironies, could not stand to bear her suffering and found it incredibly difficult to tolerate her pains in later life. Mary nor Jesus did not cure her, this ultimate seer who saw the Virgin face to face.

On the suffering of innocent children I know some (non-Catholic) thinkers who have gone to the argument that the soul exists in heaven before it takes its body on earth and clearly chooses what reparational suffering it should bear. This is not our understanding.

In the end there is T.S. Eliot’s famous quartet:
But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint -
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime’s death in love,…
These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
Here is the impossible union
Of spheres of existence is actual,
Here the past and future
Are conquered and reconciled…

We must look for the answer on the Cross, the point of intersection between Eternity and Time. We must all collectively carry it assured of God’s grace for when the time finally comes to see clearly but not as through a glass darkly.
God Bless
 
The question is does God impose suffering on people to cleanse them?Man is endowed with a free will and a great deal of suffering in this world could be as a result of his actions towards ones neighbour, to the environment, or to himself.My belief is that God is an embodiment of love and suffering is not the work of God.Are the Wars,the terrorism,the disease in this World an act of God? There is certainly suffering in this World and there are numerous cases where intercession to the Almighty has brought about relief.But not all who intercede are successful and some continue to suffer.Is this because there is lack of faith or could it be that God thinks that a bit of cleansing is required to bring one back on track.Suffering is also discriminatory in a sense,children do suffer large number particularly in Africa do not have basic necessities,some are born disabled. In other parts of the World children suffer to a lesser degree.Are all these sufferings brought about by God? or do they happen due to circumtances?In the final analysis is judgement made considering the strengths one is born with and how they coped in this world despite shortcomings?As a practising Catholic with faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ we should consider suffering and even death as a reward as our objective is to attain everlasting Glory and suffering is a stepping stone.
 
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