Suffering and God's Will (article)

[BarbaraTherese]

catholic.org/featured/reality.php?ID=2437

This is an extract only from the entire article on the above link (and not a long article)

“……………….We are not perfect, but very likely, we’ve done nothing to deserve it. These things happen in a fallen world. This is especially poignant when an innocent person is the victim of violence. People sin. And sin results, ultimately, in death. When someone sins innocent people suffer. The sinner suffers too, but that is the subject for another article…………

………………… Sometimes we have a tendency to think that if we make the decision to follow Christ and grow in the spiritual life our lives will smooth out. And this will happen to a degree if we abandon a life of chaotic sin. As we grow in repentance and transformation there will be healing from the damage we’ve done to ourselves. But sometimes others damage us. We are sinned against. Being a Christian does not provide immunity from suffering. Following Christ necessarily leads to the Cross…………”

Article on the same subject can be found: here

 

[TOP]

For the true disciple there is no choice but to just keep following Jesus through the darkness, though you can’t see Him or where He is going. It may be best that you don’t know. Just follow. Whether you follow well or badly, just follow. We may have to descend into Hell with Him, again, and again, but if we remain with Him, Easter is assured.

This is terribly insightful to an illumination of conscience and a following consolation. I want to linger on the image I have of the Easter sun rise mass once seen. I’m half in tears and half overjoyed that someone expressed this the way they did. Thanks for posting this Barbara

 

[ncjohn]

Hi Barb,

While not the best article I’ve read on the topic, it was a great reminder that suffering is just part of the human condition and not necessarily punishment for our or our parent’s sins. There are still many out there more than willing to take on the roles of Job’s friends and make everything a “tit-for-tat” meritocracy.

That is not to say that we don’t induce suffering through our sins, but that is a matter of reaping what we sow rather than God sending down thunderbolts at us. I heard Scott Hahn express it beautifully once that God’s punishment to us for our sins was to let us wallow in them until we couldn’t stand it any more. I tend to find that pretty much on the money.

In the end it’s all about how we handle our suffering. As a favorite teacher expresses it, “those who don’t learn to transform their pain will always transmit it instead.” We really don’t need to hurt each other any more than we already just do by accident.

Good to run into you again Barb!

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Hi Barb,

While not the best article I’ve read on the topic, it was a great reminder that suffering is just part of the human condition and not necessarily punishment for our or our parent’s sins. There are still many out there more than willing to take on the roles of Job’s friends and make everything a “tit-for-tat” meritocracy.

That is not to say that we don’t induce suffering through our sins, but that is a matter of reaping what we sow rather than God sending down thunderbolts at us. I heard Scott Hahn express it beautifully once that God’s punishment to us for our sins was to let us wallow in them until we couldn’t stand it any more. I tend to find that pretty much on the money.

In the end it’s all about how we handle our suffering. As a favorite teacher expresses it, “those who don’t learn to transform their pain will always transmit it instead.” We really don’t need to hurt each other any more than we already just do by accident.

Good to run into you again Barb!

Hi again John:wave: …If you have any good articles on suffering, do share them:thumbsup: Suffering in its many varied forms is probably that one thing that we can find difficult to come to terms with. And especially perhaps the suffering of the innocent through natural disasters. The suffering of those innocents at the hands of evil created by man, one tends to have something to hang it all on: the evil created by man.

“those who don’t learn to transform their pain will always transmit it instead.”

A great quote and very true!

Whatever may come my way and often self induced and hence “reaping what I have sown”, I don’t look for reasons - just try and work through it…and no"thunderbolt" rather a natural progression of cause and effect…yet aware that I suffer far less than God’s Justice owes me.

Do please share any good articles you may have on Suffering.

Good to catch up with you again too, my friend…Barb

 

[BarbaraTherese]

This is terribly insightful to an illumination of conscience and a following consolation. I want to linger on the image I have of the Easter sun rise mass once seen. I’m half in tears and half overjoyed that someone expressed this the way they did. Thanks for posting this Barbara

… …
Deo Gratius!

 

[thistle]

Hi again John:wave: …If you have any good articles on suffering, do share them:thumbsup: Suffering in its many varied forms is probably that one thing that we can find difficult to come to terms with. And especially perhaps the suffering of the innocent through natural disasters. The suffering of those innocents at the hands of evil created by man, one tends to have something to hang it all on: the evil created by man.
A great quote and very true!

Whatever may come my way and often self induced and hence “reaping what I have sown”, I don’t look for reasons - just try and work through it…and no"thunderbolt" rather a natural progression of cause and effect…yet aware that I suffer far less than God’s Justice owes me.

Do please share any good articles you may have on Suffering.

Good to catch up with you again too, my friend…Barb

I know they are not articles but books. However, these two are really good:

Making Sense Out Of Suffering by Peter Kreeft

Arise From Darkness by Father Benedict Groeschel

 

[onetimeposter]

Explain that to a suffering child or baby. Doesn’t seem right to me.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Explain that to a suffering child or baby. Doesn’t seem right to me.

Hi OTP…The suffering of the innocent in many cases cannot be explained nor rationalized - it is a painful mystery in a totally imperfect world and often the sufferings of others and especially in the young, vulnerable and innocent is a very painful matter.

Blessings - Barb

 

[ncjohn]

Hi OTP…The suffering of the innocent in many cases cannot be explained nor rationalized - it is a painful mystery in a totally imperfect world and often the sufferings of others and especially in the young, vulnerable and innocent is a very painful matter.

Blessings - Barb

You’re right Barb, and this is probably the most difficult to deal with for most of us. Almost any of us would willingly take on the suffering of one of these rather than to see them endure it, yet obviously we don’t get that choice.

The other scenario is the “natural disaster”, where multitudes are brought to great suffering through no apparent “sin” of anyone, but just the forces of nature at work. The recent tragedies in Myanmar and China come immediately to mind. This does not seem to be the result of the evil of Man, yet I suppose it could somehow be connected in ways we don’t see.

I’ll look to see if I have anything that is in linkable or postable form on the topic Barb. One very good source, which we’ve been using for a series of mini retreats with our Franciscan group, is the book “A Retreat with Job and Julian of Norwich” by Carol Lubering. It may be the best thing I’ve come across for exploring how we deal with suffering.

 

[puzzleannie]

I share as well this article on suffering based on writings of Pope John Paul II, in response to the Chapman tragedy, from Catholic Exchange this morning
catholicexchange.com/2008/06/06/112778/

 

[ncjohn]

I share as well this article on suffering based on writings of Pope John Paul II, in response to the Chapman tragedy, from Catholic Exchange this morning
catholicexchange.com/2008/06/06/112778/

Thank you for that. There was one short passage in particular that kind of summed it up for me:

In our suffering, and in our witness of the suffering of others, we certainly experience our own weaknesses. We know, in a very finite way, our need of God. In these moments we look and strain for the hand of God.

I have found that most of us really only have our hands empty enough to receive gifts from God when we are desperate enough to give Him a chance because there is no other choice. It is in the suffering we can’t control, whether our own or someone else’s, that we reach that point of desperation where we can be willing to “try” God because nobody else can solve the problem.

And it is in our willingness to sit with someone in their suffering, even when we can do nothing to alleviate it, that we find ourselves becoming the “sheep”, rather than the “goats”, who fed him when he was hungry and visited him when he was sick or in prison.

There is no question in my mind that suffering is redemptive. I just wish to heck it didn’t have to hurt so much!

 

[BarbaraTherese]

I share as well this article on suffering based on writings of Pope John Paul II, in response to the Chapman tragedy, from Catholic Exchange this morning
catholicexchange.com/2008/06/06/112778/

Thanks for posting this article, PA.
Suffering is Mystery and yet is intrinsic to the human condition and no one can escape this Mystery. Jesus in becoming human did not escape it and in not escaping it, as John said, has made it redemptive…and it is painful and it hurts - again as John said. Probably the worst of sufferings is to have to stand by the innocent who suffer and with hands totally empty (quoting John), and though I might be able to find reasons, even comfort, consolation, for my own hurt and powerlessness, very often the innocent cannot find this sort of relief in the midst of their own pain, hurt and suffering.
My hope then is that Heaven will indeed be unimaginable happiness and joy where “every tear is wiped away”.

Something terrible happened when sin entered the world, something to change it in a very radical and negative manner…and I reflect that perhaps my own sin and its repercussions of negativity go beyond the boundaries of my own self and those actually touched by my sin and it has repercussions that do not have boundaries and echos through the universe.

Barb
John, if you can find links to any good articles and post, much appreciated. I am trying very hard to make myself record in some way anything on the web that I read that touches me…invariably that one thing I look for seems to be the one thing I have not recorded.