Suffering Stumbling Block - HELP!

  • Thread starter Thread starter deekod1967
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

deekod1967

Guest
First off - I am a practising Catholic and I believe in God - infact I dont even have to believe because - I feel His presence when I close my eyes and pray!

That said - the suffering in the world is a “stumbling block” for me. I have been recently reading Sr. Faustina’s diaries, and I have also read Sr. Lucia’s diaries and I noticed that both Jesus and Our Lady of Fatima gave positive acknowledgements for sufferings made in the correct humble manner (as Jesus did at Calvary).

But why must we suffer like this? Why must we be like Jesus on the cross? Why must we suffer for His Mercy? Is it all down to original sin? Is it all so we can prove ourselves worthy of the Beatific Vision? What is all this suffering for? Why did my Father have a parylising and debilatating stroke aged 40 with four young kids to look after? If we are not to know the answers to these questions but simply have Faith, it is all too easy to see God as someone who doesnt care for us, but I feel in my heart that that is not true! Is this doubt itself just more sufferings to prove our worth? These questions reach deep into my soul and tear at it.

My apologies for my ramblings, and I hope I havent offended anyone (or scandalised God in anyway), I’m just voicing my latest “stumbling block” of Faith - I know I’ll find a way around it with your help.

O Lord, I believe - help my unbelief!
 
Matt 10:38: and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
 
40.png
deekod1967:
First off - I am a practising Catholic and I believe in God - infact I dont even have to believe because - I feel His presence when I close my eyes and pray!

That said - the suffering in the world is a “stumbling block” for me. I have been recently reading Sr. Faustina’s diaries, and I have also read Sr. Lucia’s diaries and I noticed that both Jesus and Our Lady of Fatima gave positive acknowledgements for sufferings made in the correct humble manner (as Jesus did at Calvary).

But why must we suffer like this? Why must we be like Jesus on the cross? Why must we suffer for His Mercy? Is it all down to original sin? Is it all so we can prove ourselves worthy of the Beatific Vision? What is all this suffering for? Why did my Father have a parylising and debilatating stroke aged 40 with four young kids to look after? If we are not to know the answers to these questions but simply have Faith, it is all too easy to see God as someone who doesnt care for us, but I feel in my heart that that is not true! Is this doubt itself just more sufferings to prove our worth? These questions reach deep into my soul and tear at it.

My apologies for my ramblings, and I hope I havent offended anyone (or scandalised God in anyway), I’m just voicing my latest “stumbling block” of Faith - I know I’ll find a way around it with your help.

O Lord, I believe - help my unbelief!
Click to expand...
peterkreeft.com/topics/suffering.htm

There are many reasons. God allows evil so that greater good may come from it. He allows us to choose (good or evil) so that we are not robots. He allows suffering so that we may see our dependence on God. Our suffering also brings us closer in love and compassion to one another. We can join our suffering to that of Jesus on the cross, showing our reflection of the love Jesus showed us first by taking on our sins (as a result of our free will).

Suffering is the currency of love.
 
deekod,

DeFide and I both posted links to Peter Kreeft’s writing - that should tell you something.

God Bless,
RyanL

P.S.,
DeFide - I like the way you think!
 
One thing that has helped me be more at peace with this issue is to step back for a moment and look at these things from eternity instead of from our place in time.

I know that may sound weird, but when I try to “see” with eternal eyes, this world and any suffering I experience in it is just for a moment; in terms of eternity, our lives are just for a moment, the Scriptures say a man’s earthly life is like a vapor and then it’s over. And the good, the reward, that comes from our suffering in this life, if it is offered up to God for his purposes, it will last forever. We are joining with Christ’s redemption of humanity on the cross at Calvary. Why did he choose this avenue? We will only fully understand when we are joined with Him and all the saints on the other side. But the Bible tells us that we will be so amazed at His Wisdon and Goodness, that we will Bless His Name for all eternity.
 
Thank you all for your replies, I cant get this issue out of my head just now and your comments mean a lot to me. The issue for me is - if God knows all then why create a world where the good must suffer to love Him and others?

If God is Love (and I feel He is), then why create a world where the best way to show love is by suffering? - either as He did on the cross, or as we strive to do by penance and/or almsgiving. God knows all things - why not make a different type of world where suffering is not required? Why must we all suffer to love God and others?

Its driving me crazy!

I havent had a chance to read through the links yet but I will soon, thanks.
 
40.png
deekod1967:
Thank you all for your replies, I cant get this issue out of my head just now and your comments mean a lot to me. The issue for me is - if God knows all then why create a world where the good must suffer to love Him and others?

If God is Love (and I feel He is), then why create a world where the best way to show love is by suffering? - either as He did on the cross, or as we strive to do by penance and/or almsgiving. God knows all things - why not make a different type of world where suffering is not required? Why must we all suffer to love God and others?

Its driving me crazy!

I havent had a chance to read through the links yet but I will soon, thanks.
Click to expand...
First I must say this because others have not. You need to stop feeling things out so much and start thinking them out more. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to understanding the beauty of suffering is when our feelings get in the way of our reasoning. Feelings do not lead us to truth but can and often do lead us away from truth if they are not ordered by reason. I do not mean this as an insult but rather as a medicative balm to the damage that modern catechisis has done to you and many other catholics in this era of making Christianity a feelings session. That being said let me give my contribution to this discussion.

God created a world in which Man might live. This world was perfect until the fall. In the fall suffering entered into the world. Why was this possible? God created us to love Him and to love Him in a true way Man must be free. If man is truly free then he is able not only to do great acts of goodness but also great acts of evil. Thus evil entered into the world and Man had cause to despair. Yet in the fullness of time God came and died on the Cross for us. By the Cross we are saved - by the single act of ultimate suffering we were made free again from sin and death. Now, suffering could take on meaning. Christ, choosing to use suffering as the highest image of Love for man and Love for God nailed suffering to the Cross and in so doing recreated suffering so that now suffering could bring about great deeds if done in the name of Christ. Suffering now becomes redemptive it loses its power to cause despair and takes on the power to save but the soul of the one suffering and the souls of those for whom the victim soul is suffering.

So, why then is suffering the greatest image of Love? The answer is simple. Love does not equal affection. Rather, to love a person is to desire the highest good for them - in essence True Love is to desire that the other enters into communion with God the Father so that one day he may be before the Beatific Vision of God for all of eternity. However, the highest form of love is also what the Greeks called agape. Agape (the words Christians took up for love) means that Love is a “self-donation” to the other. In a sense love is the gift of the self for the sake of the other apart from any motives to the contrary. What then is the greatest way to express the greatest form of Love - self sacrifice. The sacrifice the self for the sake of Love is the truly love in the fullest sense of love. This is why Christ says, “Greater Love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15, 13). It is in this greatest form of self donation that we find Love brought to its highest possible level - the gift of self even unto death. Thus, suffering has a portion in this as suffering can be, if used properly, a true death of self to and for the other. In this way we love our neighbor and by loving our neighbor we love God as we take up the image of the Cross in our own lives and proceed down out own personal Via Dolorosa so that we can be conformed to Christ and be made more perfect so to assist others into the kingdom of heaven and in turn effect our own salvation through the merits won for us by the Suffering God upon the Cross.

In short, suffering does not show God that we love Him but rather it shows God that we love our neighbor and thus by loving our neighbor we show that we love God. Just remember that if God made a world that in which no suffering could occure then we would not have the great gift of assisting others to see the face of God by more perfect acts of love. Thus, for the Christian suffering is a gift and not a curse.
 
40.png
deekod1967:
I know this link is non-catholic but it seems to deal with my stumbling block very well…

godandscience.org/apologetics/evilandsuffering.html

Any thoughts on the above? Is this the view of our Church also?
Click to expand...
Although what they say has some valid points. They practice Sola Scriptura and they list Catholicism in the section they call CULTS. They list us with Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and other cults. So… I would just stay away from that site.
 
40.png
deekod1967:
My apologies for my ramblings, and I hope I havent offended anyone (or scandalised God in anyway), I’m just voicing my latest “stumbling block” of Faith - I know I’ll find a way around it with your help.

O Lord, I believe - help my unbelief!
Click to expand...
You clearly have a strong faith if you have lived through the challenges you have mentioned and still hold on to your faith.

One thing I know for certain, you don’t have to worry about scandalizing God or hurting God in any way by complaining to God. Read from the prophet Jeremiah. He had his complaints to make to God. Didn’t hurt God any. But don’t just stop at Jeremiah’s complaints. Jeremiah also made peace with God and has written some of the most comforting words ever written to those who cling to God’s word in spite of difficulties.

Chapter 20 is a good chapter to read if you are feeling very resentful at God and want some company. But always end with the following from chapter 31:

"The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more. "
peace

Jim
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top