In my last post we investigated the nature of evil to discover that it is not “a thing in itself” but rather the privation or disordering of some particular good. Today we shall look at its close companion, suffering, with which evil is too often equated. At first glance, evil and suffering appear to be but two faces of the same coin mainly due to their sharing certain traits in common. For instance, suffering, like evil, may be described as the privation of a good: the loss of one’s health, liberty, even property or a loved one. All these thing cause one to suffer. Like evil, suffering is dependent upon the agency of persons. In fact, God himself seems to have ordained suffering in Genesis when He sentences Adam to toil “by the sweat of your brow” and for Eve to suffer pain in childbearing. And if suffering is just another manifestation of evil, that would mean that God has directly willed evil to exist, contrary to his nature which is pure goodness. How are we then to resolve such a paradox?

Genesis does give us a clue in resolving it. Notice that suffering did not enter the picture until after our first parent fell into sin. By embracing evil (disobedience to God’s direct command) Adam and Eve invited the baneful effects of suffering into their own lives and the lives of all their future progeny. Suffering, in other words, was an after effect of the sin they first committed. Suffering did not bring on the evil, rather it was their acceptance of evil which introduced suffering (and death) into their previously felicitous existence. Suffering is downstream from evil – it is one of the effects of sin, not its cause. Yet like evil, suffering is not “a thing in itself” but is attached to and inheres only in some conscious creature.

Suffering does not play favorites or take sides, for the righteous suffer alongside the wicked as the Book of Job so clearly illustrates. Suffering stalks its victims with no regard for one’s age, faith, politics, or income level. It is the great social leveler, undoubtedly by God’s design. Unlike evil, which God allows but does not will directly, suffering is not only permitted but at times actively willed by God for his own inscrutable purposes. So one may ask why a good God would will some innocent child, for instance, to suffer from an incurable disease? This is where the mystery of suffering deepens well beyond our limited ability to comprehend, and consequently where many become shaken in their faith. We cannot help but sense a link between suffering and evil and yet we struggle to draw a meaningful distinction between them.

Perhaps an illustration will help. Think of sin or evil as a large rock or boulder dropped into the middle of a placid pond. The resulting shock wave then ripples out across the entire surface of the water. Think of those ripples as suffering which agitates and disrupts the calm waters. Evil is the initiating action while suffering is the reaction. As suffering ripples across the pond the turbulence gradually diminishes as the suffering absorbs the energy released by the initial impact of the boulder. Likewise, God employs suffering to disperse the devastating shock waves released by sin and evil on the human population. The greater the evil unleashed the greater the consequent suffering which will be required in order to tame the effects of evil.

This thought led me to ponder whether God who is infinite beatitude could actually experience suffering. Consider all of the creatures He created out of sheer love. How might He have felt then when fully 1/3 of his angels alongside countless human beings rejected their own loving Maker out of pride? There can be no greater evil than to willfully offend the One who is perfect goodness. And how could man, after engaging in such contemptuous blasphemy, ever hope to restore that broken relationship with God? While rejection by his own creatures must certainly have been a disappointment, yet God who dwells in a fiery, Trinitarian bond of perfect love is above any experience suffering. God is perfect beatitude and so could never suffer in that beatific state.

But man, now separated from God the source of all goodness, became susceptible to every kind of suffering. Leaving aside the tricky question of whether brute animals actually suffer (which infers a psychological component) or merely feel pain, we know that rational beings whether demonic or human are subject to real suffering: spiritual, emotional, physical. In fact, suffering is hard-wired into our human existence. It is an inescapable fact of life, though not necessarily related to any personal sin, a consequence of our human conception (unlike the demons whose suffering was directly brought on by their own free choice). So suffering is not the same thing as evil per se, yet their is an element of evil in suffering if only in a limited sense. Both suffering and evil involve privation in some degree, the difference being that evil is a privation or disorder of some higher good which the person has freely chosen. Evil involves an act of the will whereas suffering does not necessarily require any willful action on our part.

The dominant mentality in our present age is that suffering should be avoided at all costs and eliminated by whatever means available (including even the extremity of assisted suicide). Modern man sees no positive value in suffering because his view of reality has grown increasingly shallow and earthbound. And if suffering were an end in itself such an attitude might be justified. But when placed in a Christian perspective suffering assumes a whole new dimension because it serves as a means to a much greater, more satisfying end which is not something material but rather a supernatural goal. That ultimate goal is to be united in a blessed communion with God for all eternity, and suffering is the escalator which can raise our souls and bodies into heaven itself. For the Christian therefore, suffering is a golden key which unlocks the gateway into paradise.

This month of October is dedicated to the most holy Rosary of our heavenly queen, Mary. Consider that five out of the fifteen decades of the Rosary are centered on the most cruel and passionate sufferings of our Lord, Jesus Christ. If it is just another form of evil why would one spend five decades meditating on suffering? Or are we to believe that there was no positive value in Christ’s terrible agonies except to satisfy the Judeo/Roman lust for blood? In fact the very reason that God assumed human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ was precisely so that He, as God, could experience suffering on our behalf. He thereby demonstrated to his followers down through the centuries the true value of suffering while also leaving us a perfect example of how to render our own sufferings most effectively to the best possible end. Man through sin had caused the offense against God, and so the man-God would step in to repair the breach by means of suffering. There is a splendid divine economy in utilizing suffering to repair the damage evil had wrought on the earth.

Think of evil and sin as some deadly venom which poisons our relationship with God, our true Father. God then uses some of that venom to produce a saving anti-venom called suffering which can then be administered to counter the deadly effects of the evil venom. Suffering then is a catalyst by which Jesus Christ, assuming our free cooperation, is able to transform whatever is evil in our lives into the saving grace which justifies and restores one to full membership in the family of God the Father. If our redemption was won through suffering then we should not fear to suffer in imitation of our Lord.

Too many of today’s Church leaders, fearful that they might have to suffer even a little, weakly cow-tow to secular ideologues, abortion tainted globalists, and geo-political agendas. Would that they showed half the enthusiasm in driving out demons as they do in praying over lifeless chunks of ice. Such antics only cause grave scandal and much suffering to the loyal Catholic faithful, but it is through such suffering at the hands of those who should be our guardians and defenders, that we can work for their salvation. As the good Catholic mothers of old used to repeat loud and often, “Offer it up!” In their unvarnished folk wisdom those Catholic matrons saw in suffering a kind of prayer which cries out to heaven itself and which God himself will hardly be able to deny.

We as members of Christ’s Church are bride to the Lamb who suffered so terribly to consummate that nuptial union. Therefore his bride, the Church, must also suffer as she is now doing in all her faithful members, as so eloquently stated by Bishop Joseph Strickland, himself a wrongfully deposed prelate, who writes: “The Church I love is being dismantled – not by her enemies, but by those within her walls who exchange the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the approval of the world. To the faithful I say: do not lose heart. Do not abandon the Church, for she is still the Bride of Christ, even as she bleeds. Remain steadfast. Pray and make reparation… Stand beneath the cross with Our Lady.”

Francis J. Pierson +a.m.d.g.