Ideas-Suffering
Why Suffering?

Why Suffering?

God wants ultimate happiness for all people and he wills only what is for their good. But the world is no longer as God made it. We inherit from our first parents a wounded nature and a broken world. The Church teaches that "God permitted such painful upheavals as the angels' fall and man's sin only as occasions and means for displaying all the power of his arm and the whole measure of the love he wanted to give the world" (CCC 760).

Great love involves great sacrifice, and the greater the personal sacrifice the greater the love and the greater the glory that follows.  In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we find a much better answer to the problem of suffering than any text book or argument  can give. Jesus was born in order to lead us into the full and final life of God, but first he had to redeem us from enslavement to evil. So his life’s work became one of suffering, sorrow and rejection. He confronted the depths of human evil and yet he died with words of forgiveness on his lips. He now offers himself to the Father for ever as the price which had to be paid for our everlasting freedom.

God the Father accepts his Son’s sacrifice of love for all humanity as an apology for all the sins of the world. This powerful offering of redeeming love is constantly renewed and applied to us in our individual needs every time Mass is celebrated. We can bring our own sufferings to Jesus there and make them part of his own great sacrifice for the salvation of the world. We should do whatever we can to alleviate the sufferings of others, but Jesus also invites us to "take up our cross" each day and follow him by making our lives a sacrifice of love to God's glory and in the service of others.

Other Ideas

Why God?

Why God?

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Why Us?

There is something about human beings that is above and beyond the animal instincts that program them to live in their environment. We don’t just live in nature, we control it and direct it...

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Why Sin?

Why Sin?

Having spiritual souls means that we have free will. We are not bound to do what is good for us by instinct. This also means that we can refuse to do what is good. God did not make us this way as...

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Why The Bible?

Why The Bible?

As spiritual beings we need a spiritual environment to live and grow in, and it is God himself who is our true environment. (“In Him we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:28)....

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Why Mary?

Why Mary?

Without Mary we would not have Jesus, so she is central to the saving plan of God. Before the world began Jesus is predestined to unite heaven and earth as God made man. Mary is chosen and...

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Why The Church?

Why The Church?

The first Christians said that the world was created for the sake of the Church, because the word "church" means the people God calls and gathers together in Jesus Christ to praise him...

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Why The Pope?

Why The Pope?

Jesus is the Wisdom of God in Person who became man to teach us the full truth and show us the only way to be fully alive with God for ever. He said "I am The Way, The Truth and The...

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Edward Holloway - Our Founder

Edward Holloway - Our Founder

Fr Edward Holloway (1918-99) was a Catholic priest who developed a remarkable theology and philosophy which presented Catholic teaching in a synthesis with the modern scientific evolutionary...

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