Why does God, who is infinite, all knowing, all powerful, and all good, allow suffering to exist in His Creation? This is a very challenging question, one that doesn’t have a simple answer. The Catechism says that “To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice….There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil” (CCC 309). Only by looking at the entire story of salvation history can we hope to understand the answer. God created a good world. He created Adam and Eve, and He gave them “dominion…over all the earth” (Genesis 1:26 RSV). Adam and Eve were created to live in perfect harmony with God, with themselves, and with the rest of Creation.  However, they were tempted by the devil and they failed to trust in God, rejecting Him and breaking the relationship that they had with Him. By rejecting God, they lost the gifts of grace that He had bestowed on them. Death entered the world, and with it came sickness, decay, and the broken world that exists today. Dissolving man’s harmony with God resulted in the dissolving of the harmony within mankind, and the harmony that existed in nature. Ultimately, this catastrophic sin is the cause of the disorder that we see around us today. However, God did not leave us in our sin. He does not allow evil to exist simply as the natural consequence of our free will. Instead, He uses it for something greater. Even directly after the Fall, He promised that a savior would come, to set us free from sin and to restore the harmony that once existed between God and man. God says to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15 RSV). This verse foretells the coming of Jesus, the “seed” of Mary, who will suffer and die on the Cross but will ultimately rise to crush Satan and defeat death itself. Jesus died in our place, paying the debt for our sins, and restoring the relationship we had with God.

But then why is the world still broken? Why do we still have to suffer? As an analogy, we are in the midst of a spiritual war. Since the Fall, we have been living in enemy-occupied territory. The Son of God came in disguise, to organize a resistance, and to prepare that resistance for the final invasion, when the enemy will be wiped out for good. This invasion has yet to come, although it is foretold many times in the Scriptures: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore” (Revelation 21:4 RSV). After the second coming, not only will mankind and the world be restored to their former harmony, but they will be glorified by God. Because of sin, Christ died for us, and because Christ died for us, He invites us to share in His own divine glory. Rather than living in the Garden of Eden, we will live forever in Heaven, in the presence of the God who loves us beyond our own understanding. This is God’s ultimate plan for each one of our lives. God allows our suffering for the sake of strengthening our faith, our will, our virtues, and most importantly our love. Christ suffered for us because He loves us. He calls us to love Him through enduring suffering, for only in suffering can love truly be tested. We cannot know exactly how He uses our sufferings, because He is infinite and our finite minds cannot fully comprehend Him. But we can trust that “where sin increases, grace abounds all the more” (Romans 5:20 RSV), and that where evil exists, God’s love is greater, and He is planning to bring something much, much better out of it. May His will be done!

This is a difficult topic to cover in a short length of writing, even across two posts. If there is anything you would like me to go into further depth on, please let me know! If you’re interested in reading more about this topic, take a look at Genesis 3, John 13-20, and CCC 386-412. I am praying for you, and I hope you all have a blessed week.