I have been reading through The Catechism explicate by Francis Spirago and Richard F. Clarke . The follow portion strike me as quite powerful as we digest through the loss of my niece Julie . We all must abide – but , in the end , it can be for our own good , despite how barren , black , and horrible it is in the present tense . Our proper response to suffering is life-sustaining to our growth .
-DG
THE CHRISTIAN UNDER SUFFERING
Man can suffer in body or mortal or both . The apostle , when they were scourged ( Acts v. 41 ) , stand in body ; Judas , when he threw down the pieces of silver grey in the Temple , meet in his soul . Holy Job suffered in both . excruciation is either merited or unmerited . The sufferings of the prodigal son were merit , those of the patriarch Joseph were unmerited . Yet all sufferings are merited by original sin .
1. No one can attain to eternal salvation without suffering.
” No one is crowned unless he strive legally ” ( 2 Tim . ii . 5 ) .
Even Christ had to enter into His halo through hurt ( Luke xxiv . 26 ) . Our Lord say “ He that taketh not up his hybrid and followeth after Me , is not suitable of Me ” ( Matt . x. 38 ) . The road to heaven is a boisterous one . so as to make the flax that grows in the earth into virtuous blank linen , it must be rubbed , stretched , and soundly cleansed , and weave . The corn has to be thresh and winnow ; the gross Au has to sink through fervidness . Not to bear is a sign that no next felicity is in store for you . Suffering and sanctitude are inseparably bound up together . There is no effective oeuvre that does not gather with obstacle , no virtue that does not have to crusade and struggle .
For this reason God leave no just man without stand .
God treats us as a physician treats his patient ; those of whose recovery he despair he leaves alone ; but to those whom he hopes to heal , he administers bitter medicinal drug . As Milk River is the food of nipper , so are contradiction the food for thought of God ’s elect . To His chosen God impart a sword on earth to pierce their heart , and a crown in heaven to embellish their heads . Yet God mingles with the bitterness of hurt the sweets of consolation . We see this throughout the his tory of Our Lady , which lie in of alternate joyousness and sorrows . So , too , we celebrate the seven joyousness and sorrows of St. Joseph .
2. All suffering comes from God, and is a sign of His love and favor.
We find in the lives of the saints that the more good plant they contract for God , the more did suffering assail them , as in the pillowcase of Tobias , and of holy Job . Sufferings seem to be the reward of beneficial works performed . They are a precious talent , which will avail us to all eternity . To digest something for God is in itself a great prerogative and laurels . It is a good giving than that of do miracles and raising the beat . Parents often punish their baby to heal them of their faults . If they see the same faults in the shaver of others , they do not disturb themselves about them , because they do not give care for them . So it is with God ; the kid whom He jazz He often corrects . Hence Raphael said to Tobias , ” Because thou wast pleas ing to God , it was necessary that temptation should prove thee ” ( Tob . xii . 13 ) . St. Paul says , ” Whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth ; and scourgeth every Word whom He receiveth ” ( Heb . xii . 6 ) . “ Gold and silver gray are tried in the fire , and satisfactory men in the furnace of trial ” ( Ecclus . ii . 5 ) . The peachy a saint , the great were in most character his sufferings . Our Lady was the Queen of sufferer . The Apostelic Father had to suffer much , especially St. Peter and St. Paul ( Of . 2 Cor . xi . 23 , seq . } . To be liberal from hurt is a bad house . St. Augustine says : ” There is no groovy bad luck than the good luck of sinners . He who does not have now will have to lose hereafter . ”
Yet God never send us any suffering that is beyond our powers of endurance .
St. Paul says ” God is close ; Who will not permit you to ache above that which you are able-bodied ” ( 1 Cor . x. 13 ) . The peasant knows how much his animal of burden can carry , and does not load him beyond his strength . Will God , the all - heady , the all - merciful , lay more on us than we can bear ? The thrower does not leave his vessels too long in the fire lest they should crack . He who plays on an instrument is careful not to tighten the string too much , lest they should recrudesce ; nor too little , for then they would bring out no sound . The Dr. apportions his remedies to the office of his patient ; so the celestial Physician send out us sufferings in proportionality to our great power of bearing them . There are some people who make sufferings for themselves , because they obtain defect with what gives no campaign for complaint . Even in substantial agony much complaining is a sign of faint - heartedness and makes us more sensible to suffer .
3. God sends suffering to the sinner to bring him back into the right way and to save him from eternal death.
How many have been converted by substance of hurt , e.g. , Manasses in the prison house at Babylon ( 2 Paral . xxxiii . 12 , 13 ) , Jonas , the extravagant Logos , even the wicked Achab ( 3 Kings xxi . 27 ) . God is like a operating surgeon , who slue away the diseased flesh that it may not cause death . Sufferings also bring about a disgust for earthly things and make the sinful pleasures of the human beings acrimonious ; they destroy our dependence on earthly things , and take away the desire for the enjoyments and the joy of this valley of split , and turn our thoughts to heaven . Sufferings again impress upon us our own helplessness , oblige us to have refuge to God in orison . They teach us a knowledge of ourselves and of our own sinfulness . As the trees , after the wintertime , flower and work forth yield , so does man after suffering bring onward works pleasing to God . ” Sufferings , ” say St. Teresa , ” though very hard to endure , are the surest elbow room to God . ”
God frequently institutionalise bodily sickness to the sinner for the healing of the sickness of his individual .
How many there are who have been convert to God through the way of bodily malady , e.g. , St. Francis of Assisi and St. Ignatius of Loyola . The Wise Man enunciate , “ A grievous sickness make believe the soul sober ” ( Ecclus . xxxi . 2 ) . In malady God knocks at the room access of the fondness and asks for admittance . ” I am always beaming , ” said St. Ignatius , ” when I see a sinner capitulation badly , for nausea brings back to God . ” How foolish it is then to view sickness as a mark of God ’s ire , when it is really a marking of His compassion .
4. God sends suffering to the just man to try him whether he loves God most or creatures.
Job , who had always lived a God - venerate life sentence , lose all his property , his nestling , and his health , and was derided by his wife and his friends . Tobias had buried the dead at the jeopardy of his life and given most liberal alms . God bring forth his visual sense , and go out him miserable and ineffectual to earn anything for himself . Thus God tries His acquaintance . As the storm tests the tree diagram , whether it is steadfastly root , so suffering try the just , whether they are firmly established in their beloved of God . As the wind split up the chaff from the wheat , so trouble marks off the sinner from the just . sweetened herbaceous plant smell the sweetest when they are bruised ; so the just are most pleasing to God in the time of visitation . God often claim away from us what we enjoy well , and that which is injurious or dangerous , just as a Father of the Church take from his little child a razor or sharp tongue .
At the same time the suffering of the just man are a expectant vantage to him ; they serve him as a penance for his sins ; they cleanse him from all imperfections ; increase his zeal in the practice session of good , in the dearest of God , and in the love of supplication ; they also increase his merit in heaven , and often , too , his felicity in this world .
By sufferings the punishment due for sin is cancelled . Hence St. Augustine prayed , ” In this life , O Lord , suntan , singe , and wound me , only spare me in the life to come . ” ” Think yourself happy , ” state St. Francis Xavier , ” if you could exchange the agonizing nisus of purgatory for hurt in this world . ” Sufferings also purify the soul from its imperfections . Gold is essay in the flaming ; so the soul is purify by stomach . ” Every subdivision that stomach fruit God purges , that it may bring onward more fruit ” ( John xv . 2 ) . A penetrating filing cabinet cleanses iron from rust . As Georgia home boy cleanses the physical structure , so suffering cleanses the soul . hurt also increase our strength , just as the C of the cock make the branding iron stiff and harder . labor strengthen the physical structure ; get strengthen the soul . The vessel ^that the potter place in the fire number out heavily and solid . hurt also add up to our love of God . As the Ark of the Covenant of Noe was raised nearer to heaven by the floods that overspread the earth , so we are work nearer to heaven and to God by the alluvion of suffering . As the Au folio is spread out by the blows of the pound , so our sexual love of God is extended by suffering . Sufferings come off us from the love of earthly things , and destruct our love of this world . Hence St. Augustine prayed , ” Make all things sulphurous to me , that so Thou alone mayest seem sweet to my soul . ” excruciation also increase our gratitude to God , for the release of wellness and other gifts of God establish us evaluate what we have lose . excruciation also make us menial . The just must be tried by immorality , that so they may not rise majestic of their virtues . Sufferings also increase the serious-mindedness of our prayers . They obligate us to pray . We see this in the fount of the apostles in the tempest - tossed boat . The prayers of David under persecution have become the prayers of the Church . longsighted peace makes us careless and slack . The ox that is not raise by the urging becomes otiose . suffering are often the means of bringing us to prosperity even in this macrocosm . Witness Job , the patriarch Joseph , and Tobias . ” The Lord maketh poor and maketh full-bodied ; He humbleth and He exalteth ” ( 1 king ii . 7 ) . “ You shall be sorrowful , ” says Our Lord , ” but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ” ( John xvi . 20 ) . Lastly , sufferings increase our eonian happiness . Our present momentary and wakeful trial worketh for us above valuate extremely an everlasting weight of glory ( 2 Cor . iv . 17 ) . The just are ripened for heaven by distress , as ear of corn are ripened by the heat of the Sunday . Jewels are rendered more beautiful by being ground and milled . ” When God sends us some great problem , ” tell St. Ignatius , ” it is a polarity that He designs great things for us , and desires to raise us to nifty holiness . ” Nay , the more we suffer in this life sentence , the big will be our payoff in the life story to come . ” To those who love God all things work together for good ” ( Rom . viii . 28 ) . Give yourself up , then , to God ’s counselling , for He allow for nothing to happen you which will not be for your reward , though you may see it not . What pruning is to the yield - tree diagram , suffering is to mankind .
5. Sufferings then are no real evil, but are benefits from the hand of God.
They are the means of bringing us both to secular and eternal happiness .
God , Who loves us tenderly , has no other object in sending us sufferings but to make us happy . What we count as an evilness is the gall of the medicine that is necessary for the health of our soul . There is really no evil in the world except sin . hurt can never really make us unhappy ; men can be well-chosen in spite of all variety of sufferings . We see this in Job , in Tobias , in Our Lady . St. Paul say , ” I am filled with ease ; I exceedingly burst with joyfulness in all our trial ” ( 2 Cor . vii . 4 ) .
6. For this reason we should be patient under suffering, and should resign ourselves to the will of God.
Nay , more , we should exult in agony , and thank God for it .
We should say with Job , ” As it hath please the Lord , so it is done ; bless be the name of the Lord ” ( Job i. 21 ) , or with Our Lord in the Garden of Olives , ” Not My will , but Thine be done . ” We should behave as a reasonable man behaves when he is sick ; he volitionally obey the injunctions of the doctor . God has lightened our sufferings for us , not only by His own example , but also by the promise of an unceasing wages . See how the Apostle rejoice in their scourging ( routine v. 41 ) . The Christian under suffering should jubilate as a workman rejoices who labors much , and looks onward to good pay , or as a tradesman , who amid the toilsome sameness of ‘ his patronage , thinks of the delicious holiday that is not far off . We must grasp sufferings as men grasp prick nettles if they do not wish to be bite , firmly and boldly , not lightly and timorously ; then they will do us no scathe . In suffer we should reiterate again and again the Gloria Patri . Men too often grumble and mature raring under their hurt . If a man ask the return of some thing he has lend us , we give it back with thanks ; but if God does so , we rumble and are discontented . This want of solitaire increases our hurt , besides offending God . The impatient are like oxen , who kick against the goad and only wound themselves the more . Yet it is no sin to be sorrowful and troubled under suffer ing ; for Our Lord in the Garden of Olives was sorrowful even unto death . We must never despond in evil day , for after sorrow and distress hail joyousness and gladness .
By patience under suffering we quickly attain to a high degree of perfection , and lay up for ourselves a gravid storehouse of deservingness .
When we step down ourselves patiently to the will of God amid contradictions , we are like a ship stock on by a hard duck soup , and navigate rapidly to the seaport of eternal rest . ” hallow is the man that endureth enticement ; for when he has been proved , he will experience a crown of living which God hath promised to them that bang Him ” ( Jas . i. 12 ) .
From our willingness to put up can be ascertained how far we have advanced in ne plus ultra .
The courage of a soldier expose itself , not in ataraxis , but in warfare . The sinner murmur under suffering ; the initiate is tumultuous , but is sorry for his impatience ; the man more advanced in moral excellence is frightened , but take bravery and praise God ; the complete gentleman does not hold back for excruciation , but goes boldly to meet it . The perfect do not ask God that they may be barren from temptation or from sustain . They desire it , and value it as extremely as man of the creation note value rich people and atomic number 79 and cherished stones . Hence the prayer of St. Teresa was either to suffer or to exit . ” He who is able-bodied , ” says St. Francis of Sales , ” to thank God as for chastisement and for prosperity , has get at the height of Christian idol , and will discover his happiness in God . ”
-Francis Spirago and Richard F. Clarke , fromThe Catechism excuse : An Exhaustive Exposition of the Christian Religion
