Every time a tragedy
occurs Catholics, and for that matter most Christians, are quick to ask how God,
who is omnibenevolent, can allow evil and suffering. As an immediate reaction
this question is fair but continuing to question will lead into doubt and
despair. This short post attempts to provide some introductory thoughts to this
apparent problem of pain and suffering.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is
clear that there is no short answer to this question. The Catechism says “there
is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer
to the question of evil.”[1] Our
entire Christian faith is a response to evil. Evil entered the world at the
fall and Christ came to redeem man.
God certainly could
have created the perfect world in which there would be no suffering, but God
decided, in His mysterious plan, not to create the world perfect. Instead of
creating the world perfect God created the world journeying towards perfection.
He created man with free will, the ability to choose the good and avoid evil,
however man has gone astray and sin has entered into the world. God is thus not
the cause of evil, however he does permit it because he values the freedom of
man and knows the good that can come from evil.[2]
To see that good can
result from evil we need look no further than the cross where “Christ took our
painful condition and made of it the way of true life.”[3]
Christ’s greatest act of love came at the price of the greatest human
suffering. The cross teaches us that to love one must suffer. Christ teaches us
that suffering flows from love and points back to it.[4]
While suffering is by
its very nature painful, we must realize the necessity of suffering. We are all
called to be people of hope, yet without suffering we would not know what hope
is and a superficial desire for a superficial happiness. Through evil we learn
to place our complete trust, not in things of this world, but in God.
It seems that through
suffering greatness shines through. God permits suffering then works greatness
through it. “Suffering is never a reason for discouragement or lack of
confidence in God since if proves the truth of his love for us.”[5]
Often when evil and
suffering beset us we try to come up with an explanation or an excuse as a
means of escaping the pain. “In the face of suffering and death human beliefs
and ideologies are all, more or less, explicitly doctrine of escape, Marxism
not excluded. No doctrine of escape is worth of God.”[6] Ultimately
it does not concern us why God permits evil and suffering, rather what is
important is our approach to it. We must accept the suffering and see it as an opportunity
to grow towards perfection in heaven.
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