Luceat!

As a missionary serving on college campuses one of the most common questions presented by skeptics to the Christian faith is, “why is the world so messed up if God is so good? Why is there so much suffering?” The terrible disaster that occurred in Minnesota will inevitably raise this question again.

This question is an important one because, as Pope John Paul II wrote in the Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Doloris, “This happens (suffering), as we know, at different moments in life, it takes place in different ways, it assumes different dimensions; nevertheless, in whatever form, suffering seems to be, and is, almost inseparable from man’s earthly existence.”

St. Paul has the audacity to say to the Colossians: “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” How can St. Paul say such a crazy thing? How can he rejoice in suffering? John Paul says it is because, “A source of joy is found in the overcoming of the sense of the uselessness of suffering.” Christ has taught us through the cross and resurrection that suffering has value, it has a purpose, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. (A light shining in the darkness if you will.)

What possible value or purpose can there be in suffering? John Paul again says, “Faith in sharing in the suffering of Christ brings with it the interior certainty that the suffering person “completes what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions,”” and finally, “human sufferings, united to the redemptive suffering of Christ, constitute a special support for the powers of good, and open the way to the victory of these salvific powers.”

This truth is so beautifully deep for it has given strength to the martyrs who are the seeds of the Church, and inspiration to the countless mystics, ascetics, contemplatives and missionaries who have served the Church and built it up through their participation in “Christ’s afflictions.”

But how do you explain this to a skeptic? I think it is important to see that most of the time when someone asks why God allows suffering, they are implying that God should just erase it from existence. They know that Christians believe that “God is love” but they falsely assume that if God really loved us He would remove all human suffering.

I think that in answering the skeptic you have to reaffirm that in fact God is love. Because God is love, He is not going to force His will upon us. To simply erase suffering He would have to violate our free will. In doing so our ability to love would be lost. Can there be a greater act against love than to prevent another from being capable of love? Instead God became man, faced the greatest forms of human suffering, and overcame them when He emerged from the tomb 3 days later. Our God has suffered. He knows what it is to go without, to be lonely, to be hungry, and to feel pain and sorrow. He knows what we go through, and He says to each one of us, “You do not suffer in vain. As I rose, you too will rise if you will pick up your cross and follow me.”