Why does God allow suffering?

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I am aware that God allows suffering for our own good, etc. I posted something on this, and this is a comment I got (suggestions on how to answer it?):confused:

" “He gives us sufferings as a means to ‘undo’ our sins, to make retribution to justice, and to earn our place in heaven.” I definitely don’t agree with this statement here! If this is so, what’s the point of Jesus suffering excruciating tortures, trials and sufferings all the way to the cross? Jesus at the cross said “IT IS FINISHED!” There’s therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for a believer anymore. All our past, present and future sins have been paid for at the cross! You might say “Only the sins we did until we became believers!” Then where were you when He died at the cross? He paid for our sins once and for all - not until our next sin! As for earning a place in heaven, please read John 3:16,17 again! There’s nothing to earn because salvation and eternal life are FREE for us but God paid A HEAVY PRICE for it - His beloved Son was given up! My point is that suffering happens to all of us because we still live in a fallen world. No one is perfect here on earth. In the midst of suffering, we put our trust in the Lord to bring us out of it for He will meet our needs according to His riches in glory (Phil 4:9). Furthermore, I don’t believe it’s God’s will for people to suffer. If that’s true then why did Jesus go around teaching, healing and providing for 3.5 years? He should say to the leper “I won’t heal you. You need to learn through your suffering.” or to the boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish “Thanks for the lunch. As for the rest, they can go hungry. A little suffering would do them good.” NO WAY! When we see Jesus, we see God. It’s in God’s nature to teach, to heal, to bless and to provide. "​

There is some confusion going on in this comment, and I would like to answer it in accordance with the Church’s teachings. Thanks 😉
 
I think that person’s response is a pretty good one.

God doesn’t want us to suffer; he allows us to suffer. If you’re sick, you need surgery. This does not make the pain involved in surgery good. And we need to accept that God might open doors for us to experience freedom from suffering. There is nothing wrong with that.
 
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We must ask for Jesus’ forgiveness on every sin committed straight away until we are able to attend Reconciliation;Otherwise our sins are sitting on our Soul stagnant, non-forgiven and guilt over-riding us tempted by satan and not able to move on in Jesus’ Holy Spirit, with our lives being miserable wallowing in guilt! This is the process taught by His Apostles within The Old Testament regardless of whether we disagree!

Once Absolution has been done by the Priest and Penance set and completed; our Souls are purer within The Holy Spirit.

God allows suffering if we do not fully open up our Hearts praying to Him beseeching His Holy Mother for Her Divine Most Holy Loving Intercession to our problems and sufferings.

Through prayer 3 or 4 times daily we come closer to Our Lord in Communion with The Holy Spirit with Fasting, staying away from all rubbishy items, attending Mass and Reconciliation weekly if at all possible.

These are the ways in which His Children are able to ‘fully’ open up their Hearts to Jesus in order for Him to be able to help us.
 
HolyRosaryChild said:
God allows suffering if we do not fully open up our Hearts praying to Him beseeching His Holy Mother for Her Divine Most Holy Loving Intercession to our problems and sufferings.
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He also allows it if we do fully open up our hearts. Remember, Jesus and Mary suffered greatly.
 
Consider the converse proposition, would it fit the description of life on Earth?
 
Prodigal_Son said:
He also allows it if we do fully open up our hearts. Remember, Jesus and Mary suffered greatly.
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God sure didn’t stop a car from running into me and destroying my automobile and dislocating my left shoulder last October. Not sure why. It’s strange but with all the pain, sorrow and suffering I have experienced, I’m not mad. I should be mad at God, the other driver, the insurance company, myself, whoever, but I’m not and for me, that’s just weird!🤷 I pray that the other person in the accident is okay and not seriously hurt, whoever he or she may be.
 
A problem with some who misunderstand the idea of sharing in the suffering of Christ has to do with the mistaken view of some, namely that God lives within the confines of time as we experience it.

“Once for all,” and “it is finished,” can thus get confused to mean that the Sacrifice of the Cross is something locked into the past, but in reality no one, Catholics, Protestants, etc., actually view the sacrifice this way.

The words of the apostle Paul show that the Sacrifice of the Cross is in no way limited to what Christ experienced on the cross. “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,” St. Paul states at Colossians 1:24, “and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.”

Did you notice what Paul said about the suffering he was experiencing? He said it was one with Christ’s sacrifice, stating that his own sufferings were “filling up what is lacking in the affliction of Christ on behalf of his body.”

These words are in line with what Paul earlier learned when he first met Christ on the road to Damascus. When Paul, known then as Saul, was persecuting Christians, causing followers of Christ to suffer, Jesus stated:

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?..I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”–Acts 9:1-5.

Here we learn that the Lord views the sufferings of the members of his own body, members of the Church, to be his own sufferings.

While Christ’s literal sacrifice on this Cross was a one-time event, that one-time event did something no other human event can and could ever do: it undid everything sin did in the past, covered over sin in the present, and forgave sins of the future.

As the benefits of the Sacrifice and Sufferings of Christ on the Cross are not bound by the limits of time, Christ does not stop sharing in human suffering just because he is in heaven. In fact, in Matthew 25 Jesus states that until the end of time he is one with those who suffer from hunger, who thirst, who are ill, or suffering in any other way. In fact, Jesus claims that he is the real One suffering, and that people will thus be judged worthy of everlasting life ONLY if they acknowledge this reality. In other words, Christ is coming to us when we suffer, using suffering as a bridge made by the wood of that wonderful Cross.

However good that sounds, remember that suffering has no benefit outside of what Christ did on the Cross. It is not God’s will that we live a life where we must face and endure suffering. But since we live in a world where suffering is part of the current state of existence, God miraculously transformed it into something of redeeming value and with power. And it is only the Cross that gives it that power.

Yes, we often wonder “WHY” about suffering without getting a satisfying answer to it all. Nothing about suffering is pleasant. And the truth is that God has not placed it within our own jurisdiction to understand everything about this right now. (Compare another popular question of “WHEN” and what Jesus tells us at Acts 1:6-8.) Just as it is not easy to grasp how far-reaching beyond the limits of time is the Sacrifice of the Cross and how it connects with our sufferings, so there is no complete answer as to the “WHY” of suffering.

Instead we might want to follow the advice of the Psalmist. I know this is not an easy answer, and it’s not the one many want, but it shows what kind of modesty is expected of us when it comes to trusting God when faced with puzzling questions:

O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor haughty my eyes.
I have not gone after things too great,
nor marvels beyond me.–Psalm 131:1.
 
rosegirl97 said:
I am aware that God allows suffering for our own good, etc. I posted something on this, and this is a comment I got (suggestions on how to answer it?):confused:

" “He gives us sufferings as a means to ‘undo’ our sins, to make retribution to justice, and to earn our place in heaven.” I definitely don’t agree with this statement here! If this is so, what’s the point of Jesus suffering excruciating tortures, trials and sufferings all the way to the cross? Jesus at the cross said “IT IS FINISHED!” There’s therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for a believer anymore. All our past, present and future sins have been paid for at the cross! You might say “Only the sins we did until we became believers!” Then where were you when He died at the cross? He paid for our sins once and for all - not until our next sin! As for earning a place in heaven, please read John 3:16,17 again! There’s nothing to earn because salvation and eternal life are FREE for us but God paid A HEAVY PRICE for it - His beloved Son was given up! My point is that suffering happens to all of us because we still live in a fallen world. No one is perfect here on earth. In the midst of suffering, we put our trust in the Lord to bring us out of it for He will meet our needs according to His riches in glory (Phil 4:9). Furthermore, I don’t believe it’s God’s will for people to suffer. If that’s true then why did Jesus go around teaching, healing and providing for 3.5 years? He should say to the leper “I won’t heal you. You need to learn through your suffering.” or to the boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish “Thanks for the lunch. As for the rest, they can go hungry. A little suffering would do them good.” NO WAY! When we see Jesus, we see God. It’s in God’s nature to teach, to heal, to bless and to provide. "​

There is some confusion going on in this comment, and I would like to answer it in accordance with the Church’s teachings. Thanks 😉
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As another poster has said, I believe the person’s comment is a pretty good one too. There is nothing in it that is contrary to the Catholic faith.

We suffer as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve. God’s original plan for us was that we shouldn’t have to suffer. Jesus has revealed to us that suffering has a redemptive value as can be seen by his own suffering and death. We are followers of Jesus and thus our sufferings have redemptive value.

Jesus did pay the price of our redemption once and for all through his sacrifice on the cross. However, this sacrifice is re-enacted in a real way in every Catholic Mass. Jesus is repeatingly offering the bloody sacrifice he made on the cross in a real but unbloody way for the salvation of the world to the Father in every Mass. It was not Christ’s intention that the bloody sacrifice he made for us on the cross should end with his death. Jesus instituted the Eucharist so that the sacrifice he made for us on the cross be a perpetual memorial. And not just a memorial of some bygone event, but a real living memorial and sacrifice for the bread and wine are changed into the living body and blood of Christ. The Church has told us that the sacrifice of the Mass is truly propitiatory, i.e., it atones for our sins.

Though salvation and eternal life are a free gift from God which Jesus earned for us by His sacrifice on the cross, we still need to cooperate with God’s grace. For Christ’s sacrifice and God’s grace do not do away with man’s free will. God graciously rewards us by our cooperation with His grace and consequently we do merit heaven by our cooperation with His grace.
 
Suffering is a reality of our nature. We wear out. We die from accidents.

The question is do we sanctify suffering. Do we use it to grow closer to Christ and each other?
 
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