how come He allows us to feel such pain when we have Him in our heart? I mean....since we're trying fervently to follow in His path set out for us, why all the suffering?
Since God is omnipotent....
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Its not just about you following the path He set out for you, but others because we are one universal, one Catholic Church. Your sufferings are united to the sacrifice on the cross for the salvation of others as well as yourself. The blood of all the martyrs and of St. John of the Cross and Teresea of Avila and your own are flowing through to the Sacred Heart and being beaten elsewhere.
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jbarcher
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bostonlass said:how come He allows us to feel such pain when we have Him in our heart? I mean....since we're trying fervently to follow in His path set out for us, why all the suffering?
The only real answer to this is Him.
The other answers are insufficient, but still of some value.
Creation always requires destruction. We are faaaaaaar from perfect. God started a "good work" in us, and will complete it.
Also, our culture hates suffering. Other cultures expect suffering, and mostly suffering. See this article involving cross-cultural perspectives. Personally, having looked at ancient Mediterranean culture via Context Group, I've come to expect suffering--in a slightly Eastern way. Suffering has suddenly become positive. A quirky example: how easy is it to lust when you're in pain?
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bostonlass said:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:8-9
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bostonlass said:how come He allows us to feel such pain when we have Him in our heart? I mean....since we're trying fervently to follow in His path set out for us, why all the suffering?
I think Scott Hahn's tapes series, Where is God in an Ungodly World?--his tape on The Problem of Evil & The Meaning of Suffering handles that very question. What I got out of his tapes is that suffering (evil) is due to the very Freedom-of-will that was given us by God. (Freedom of Will implies the existence of things that everyone gets to choose between--God's will for us or evil things that lead to suffering.) And of course, there's that quote from (I believe) St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the 33 doctors of the Church: "Though there's evil now, not only does this not disprove God's power & goodness, but it is going to show that God is all powerful and all good when, in the end, God brings the greatest possible good out of that evil--a good which would not be apart from that evil."
Suffering can indeed be redemptive. Just look at the crucifix.
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I recommend this by Pope John Paul II:
Salvifici Doloris (The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering) February 11, 1984 [Apostolic Letter]
There was also a great series of lectures on EWTN by the president (a priest) of Gonzaga University called "Suffering and the God of Love" which were excellent.
Salvifici Doloris (The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering) February 11, 1984 [Apostolic Letter]
There was also a great series of lectures on EWTN by the president (a priest) of Gonzaga University called "Suffering and the God of Love" which were excellent.
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