Innocent Suffering

[Image by Estefano Burmistrov from Pixabay]

Why does "pain and suffering" exist for the "innocent"?

1. Because with our human free will—along with the influence of evil spirits—we can and do choose wrongdoing against both ourselves and others.
2. If God prevented people from freely choosing wrong, freedom wouldn’t exist; we would be mere robots or brute animals.
3. All have fallen short of perfection, and justice has to exit, because it is a virtue of God.
4. Love cannot be practiced without experiencing pain and suffering at some point, because no one can become truly loving without being loving in response to those who wrong them.
5. Pain and suffering can and needs to be offered as compensation for our own rejection of Truth, Love, and Virtues—regardless of whether this rejection occurs in the past, present, or future.
6. When choosing to sin, (i.e. rejecting Truth, Love, and Virtues), in reaction to pain and suffering, our culpability can be reduced, (while still being held responsible), making us more worthy of God's mercy.
7. Pain and suffering provides opportunities for sacrificial love—the highest expression of love— by allowing us to offer them up to God to compensate for the rejection of Truth, Love, and Virtues by others, even those who have not sinned directly against us.
8. Varying degrees and kinds of emotional pain and suffering naturally result from our own irrational thoughts, false beliefs, unrealistic expectations, bad wants and desires, wrong likes and dislikes, and distorted attractions, whether or not we are consciously aware of or remember having chosen them.
9. Pain and suffering act as signals, alerting us to problems that need resolution. This draws us to God, who gives us Truth, Love, and Virtue, guiding us to set boundaries that prevent self-harm and stop enabling others’ wrongdoing.                                                                                                                                      "God, what Truths do You want me to learn, change within myself, and do differently in my external actions?"
10. Pain and suffering are often the most effective way for us to distinguish between what is true and right versus what is false and wrong.

God always brings good out of all pain and suffering. Ask Him to show you specifically how.

Pain and suffering are not only necessary but ultimately good.

For further education on the subject, read Uniformity to God's Will by Dr. St. Alphonsus de Ligouri.