9. Redemptive Suffering

Alright, so last time, we discussed how there is a disconnect between those westerners who look at the third world nations and call on God’s unfairness and those saints who willingly gave up their luxurious lifestyle willingly. This time, we’re going to discuss it, and ultimately, look at why the problem of evil isn’t actually a problem for Christians.

As we discussed earlier, any four year old child could tell you that something about the world isn’t fair, though they may not be able to say what it is or how big it is. The lack of fairness and justice in life seems to be the most clearly evident proof available that there is no God up there, there is no supreme judge trying to hold the world together, or anything like that. The thief gets away, the innocent man takes the fall, and nobody is able to right the wrong.

There’s just one problem with approaching it from that perspective. See, to the Christian, this life isn’t all there is. To the Christian, when life becomes rough, it’s okay, because there’s a promise of an eternal reward. To a Christian, when injustice happens, it’s okay, because in the end, all will be held accountable for their actions.

However, beyond just this simple idea of justice is a distinctly Catholic idea. The problem of pain, evil, and suffering in the world shouldn’t be a challenge, especially to Catholics, because of the idea of redemptive suffering. What does this mean?

We’re going to skip a few steps here. Don’t worry, we’ll be going back and coming all the way to this point in the future (eventually). Meanwhile, bear with me while we jump ahead.

Redemptive suffering is the idea of uniting your sufferings to the suffering of Christ on the Cross. There’s a very old phrase that has sort of faded out of use, but is still sometimes heard in Catholic circles, “offer it up.” What does this mean?

It means to offer the suffering up as penance for our sins. It means to use the suffering and bear it patiently as a way of showing God repentance and sorrow for past sins. It means to acknowledge that Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient to repay the debt that Original Sin created in the world, but we can still play a role in that suffering by saying, “Hey, I’m sorry for my sins. Here’s my proof and what I could do.”

Now before some of our non-Catholic brothers and sisters get up in arms saying that there’s nothing we can do that can possibly earn our salvation, I’d like to say that’s entirely true. Here’s an analogy that may help: Imagine a man mowing his lawn with a riding mower while his child rides on his lap. The child will naturally want to take a turn driving the mower, so the father will let him put his hands on the wheel and pretend he’s driving. Is the child actually really doing anything to direct the mower? Probably not. What matters, though, is that the child has an interest in doing it and the father recognizes that.

So the problem of evil does indeed pose a problem in today’s world. However, that problem is not proving that God doesn’t exist. Instead, it proves a very different problem. It proves that there are millions of Christians in the world who believe themselves to be justified in calling themselves Christians while at the same time being unwilling to either help others through their suffering or to bear suffering of their own.

This concludes the little tangent on the Problem of Evil. Next time, we’ll get back into the series proper and resume working forward from the knowledge that One, Omnipresent being, existence itself, exists.