How to explain the meaning of suffering

[Frankk]

I agree sometimes it is not possible to explain why innocent new borns suffer.However if they suffer due to indiscretions of the the pregnant mother can you blame God.?During pregnancy there are certain precautions that a would be mother has to take avoiding certain drugs,excessive alocohol etc and in such a situation the infant may suffer.Of course there could be normal situations where a child could be born deformed but unfortunately we cannot explain everything but the element of faith is important in Catholism.

Everyone can understand that babies can suffer because of the mother’s actions during pregnancy - that’s not what’s being discussed.

 

[Frankk]

Don’t you folks understand that when you look at that disadvantaged child who is born deformed that you are in the exact same place that he is in?
You ask yourselves what in the world did that child do to deserve this, but you should also ask yourselves what in the world did you do to deserve this. You are both in the exact same place.
We are all born fallen, sinful, deformed, with an imperfect nature. Why are you surprised that this does not have a physical manifestation?
The tragically deformed or otherwise doomed child who is born in the world is reflection of your own face. Don’t you see that? Why do you insist that such a child is a special case, for he is not. Not at all. He is your brother, in the exact same fate as you.
Awake. See that your situation is not superior to his. His, in fact, might even be preferable.
In fact, I think it is.

This is philosphy/theology gone mad. No-one has suggested a feeling of superiority over the disabled/deformed. And, no, such people aren’t in exactly the same place as I am.

I certainly don’t ask what they have done to deserve it, anymore than I can ask what I have done to deserve what blessings I have. The answer is clear - nothing I do can be enough to deserve any blessing whatsoever. Nor can a newborn baby have done anything at all either way.

If you think such a position of suffering is better why not join such people and stick pins in your eyes every morning or, at least, scourge yourself with a lead tipped whip to give you, at least, an insight into the Lord’s suffering. I’m sure you’ll feel better for it?!

Or next time I see a young child suffering terrible pain should I tell her/him to cheer up because, actually, s/he is better off than me? I don’t think so!

 

[KyivAndrew]

Also, on top of what I have said and the other good posts, George Weigel. HH John Paul II’s biographer writes in his The Truth of Catholicism:

"Suffering, in the Catholic view of things, is a mystery. By ‘mystery,’ Catholic theology means not a puzzle to be solved as Sherlock Holmes would do, but a reality that can only be grasped and comprehended in an act of love. There is no ‘answer’ to the problem of suffering in the sense that there are answers to questions like ‘What is two plus two?’ The Church has always believed and taught that there is a different kind of answer to the question ‘Why do we suffer?’ That answer takes us directly into the heart of the Church, which is Jesus Christ.
That Jesus Christ is a suffering redeemer has been a shock and offense since the first days of Christianity. The challenge of belief in a redeemer whose victorious strength is displayed in his weakness may be greater today than at any other time in the past two thousand years, given our culture’s resistance to the idea that suffering is the necessary path to beatitude or human flourishing. But that is the mystery – the profoundly human mystery – of suffering."