Faith gives Suffering Meaning

(Gospel) How much does your faith explain Suffering to you? Judas definitely had a major problem with Jesus' acceptance of suffering, and even ended up being part of it's cause.


Here is a testimony from a recent convert to the faith: I thought this presented a bit of food for thought on how much my faith gives meaning to my life:

Being Catholic has so changed my attitude! I was suffering from dehydration. But I came home and saw my crucifix and thanked Christ for allowing me to share in some way what he experienced in his passion. Again I was amazed at how much he loves us and wanted to reconcile us by becoming human, and then being obedient to death to his Father. And I marveled how, dehydrated and beaten as he was, he had the courage (for us) to get up again when he fell under the weight of the cross. I am so glad the Lord brought me to the Catholic faith! My view of the purpose of life is so radically different. I want eternal blessedness and happiness; pleasure and thrills are not the point.

And Again:

I was a Protestant more recently than you were. When things were starting to go bad in my marriage, and there was pain, suffering and depression, the Protestant churches did not know what to do with the issue of suffering. You either had to deny it, or blame one's own sinfulness for suffering. One strength of Catholicism is it doesn't deny frailty, weakness and suffering - it's incorporated, through the incarnation and Pascal mysteries into its understanding of reality. Even the Mass acknowledges the reality of suffering. I honestly think for those who pride themselves on being realists, Catholicism is what they're looking for - a real Jesus who didn't just live among us but WAS one of us.

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