Suffering?

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Montie_Claunch

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My aunt asked me why we think highly of sacrifical suffering. She kept repeating to me “Didn’t Christ already take care of all that [suffering] for us?” I think that she doesn’t understand and is not a bashing Catholicism as unbiblical as she ussually does. How should I explain this to her in a way that she would understand (I am not all that good at communicating with middle aged prostant women)? Thanks and God bless.
 
Tell her that it’s because scripture says so. Give her these verses to think about and then tell her that there are more where these came from:

Colossians 1:24
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

Romans 5:3-5
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

Romans 8:15-17
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
 
The above Bible verses are excellent, it’s what Protestants listen to more than anything else.

I would also pose another question to her.

Experience tells us that Christ didn’t end suffering on the cross. There’s not a person born into this world that doesn’t endure suffering of some kind, whether Christian or not. So why is this so, if Christ’s suffering was sufficient to end all suffering?

This combined with Biblical verses explaining the suffering of Christians and the fruit that is produced from that suffering should give her some things to chew on for awhile!
 
Dear Monty,
even more than that, what do we tell people who have terminal illness and have nothing left in life (presumably, given their diagnosis) but to suffer and then die. Ultimately, a Protestant cannot fully comfort the individual because they don’t believe in merit. They think it “blasphemous” that we can help Christ redeems others. But only the Catholic (or the Orthodox, too maybe?) can give them the fullness of comfort that God wills us to give. We can say to the dear elderly person, “Your suffering is NOT AT ALL meaningless. For now, you can ask Our Savior to give the grace to endure what sufferings cannot be aleviated by medical care and offer them up in love for anyone you wish. Imagine the great graces you can gain for poor sinners who are near damnation. and if the graces Our Dear Savior gives to one such sinners is able to save them, what a wonderful thanks you will have in heaven because Jesus used you to help redeem someone.” I can only think this is the most compelling and deep reason to be Catholic. Only the Catholic Church has this deepest mystery of human suffering.

I think also of an analogy that i have heard used by our dear sister, Rosalynd Moss, and I think by Kimberly Hahn, too, in that God is like a mother who is in the process of preparing to make a cake, and her little three year old daughter [us] says with that innocent love, “Mommy, can I help you?” What mother would say, “Oh, shut up and go away, I can do this myself, thank you!” No, even though God knows that in our early stages of the journey of faith, because we yet have significant sinful tendencies and only a small possession of sanctifying grace and knowledge of God’s truths, we will probably make more of a mess than actually help, nevertheless, as we grow in maturity of love, experience, and knowledge, and, that is, in the grace of God, we will be able to help the “mother” ever more proficiently in the business of saving souls. I mean, technically, yes, God does not NEED our help. He could just give the graces to the sinner anyway. No, He doesn’t NEED our help, He WANTS it, and also especially because, by the very fact that we possess sanctifying grace, we have a desire to love as God loves, and so how could God hard heartedly refuse our plea to help us help Him in the work of salvation.

For a more systematic elaboration, I have an article on suffering on my website, if it could be of any help.

Reflecting of the Tragedy: a Discourse on Suffering

Blessings to you and the elderly lady!
scott
 
Also, read Peter Kreeft’s book Making Sense Out of Suffering. Very good, indepth look at the issue. It clarified it a lot for me.
 
Montie -
You might want to remind your aunt that many Protestants understand the necessity and sacrifice of suffering. There is a book titled,“When God Weeps” by Joni Eareckson Tada, who is a quadriplegic Protestant. She was the subject of a book and a movie in the early 80’s.

"Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ" - St. Jerome
 
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