3-21 Theology 101:

Why Does God allow suffering?

Doug Culp

If God is good, why does God permit suffering? This is a question that each and every person will most assuredly confront at some point or other as suffering in one of its various forms finds us all.
Of course, there is no easy answer to this question, as we are ultimately dealing with a great mystery. Even Christ was not spared the hurts of living in a fallen world. In fact, Christ’s response to human suffering was to enter fully into it, to suffer with humanity, which is the very meaning of the word compassion. Perhaps, this is why it has been said the final word when standing before the mystery of God is muein, an ancient Greek word meaning “to close the mouth.”

The shadow side of freedom
In order for us to be fulfilled, we must live in harmony with that for which we are made.
The Catholic Church teaches us that God freely created us out of love for eternal life in communion with God. In other words, we are made for Love, for God is Love, and, therefore, we can only live a full life if we live into this Love.

The story of the Garden of Eden depicts just such a time. As beings made by Love for Love, our first parents enjoyed an existence absent from suffering. They shared completely in the overflowing abundance of God’s love for humanity and the world.

However, our first parents were also susceptible to the birth of a disordered understanding of self because beings made for love must also possess a free will. Without free will, love, which gives itself away freely, is simply not possible.

Consequently, the state of communion that our first parents enjoyed in the garden required their ongoing choice. They had to choose and say, “Yes!” to this communion out of their own love for God. Naturally, this meant that they could also say, “No!” It was just this possibility that the serpent in the story seized upon. Of course, we know all too well that the serpent convinced our first parents to disobey God.

Because of their “No!” to communion with God, communion was ruptured. The woman and man suddenly felt like they were separated from God, a consciousness that reflected a lack of right relationship with God. Far from a fuller enjoyment of life, they moved from a state of abundance to an existence where suffering became all too real. This deformed understanding of self, or separateness from God, continues to plague us all, influencing our own choices for communion.

The tension of finitude
Life also truly thrives when it is in balance. However, this balance is achieved and maintained only by means of any number of fragile tensions. When these tensions are broken or lost, balance is lost and life succumbs to any manner of disorder and death.

For example, consider that our planet orbits a star. Any variation in gravitational forces could change the shape of this orbit or affect the earth’s distance from the sun. Either of these would have dire consequences for life on earth. What’s more, we are told by scientists that cosmic rays constantly bombard the earth from beyond our solar system. Again, these rays would spell the end of life on the planet.

We are spared from this outcome only by the solar winds of the sun, which shield our solar system from these rays like the protective arms of a mother. At the same time, though, these same solar winds can kill us too. Fortunately, our atmosphere protects us from these winds.

There are also innumerable natural processes, each with its own function in maintaining balance in nature. However, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and the like can visit untold suffering on human beings.

So while God’s respect for human freedom can provide a reason for why God permits some suffering, what can explain God designing such a world?

An invitation
Communion with God the Father is possible when we are “of the same mind, same love, united in heart, and thinking one thing” (Phil 2:2) with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have already said this means living in the Love that is God, a Love characterized by kenosis, or “self-emptying.”

St. Paul refers to Divine Love as agape. Agape is a proactive searching out for opportunities to love rather than a mere passive reacting to particular situations with love. Jesus Christ makes it even clearer for us. Throughout the Gospels, we find that whenever someone asks Jesus what love is, they immediately get a task.

What is love? Feed the hungry; clothe the naked; visit the prisoner. What is love? Forgive your brother seven times 70 times. What is love? Go and sell all that you have and come follow me. What is love? Pray for your enemies.

What is love? Lay down your life for your friend.

In other words, love requires us to act for agape is pure action. Love also requires us to deny our very self. Love is other-centered by its very nature. Love is self-giving and self-sacrificing.
And God has loved us first.

From the loving act of creation to the Incarnation to Pentecost, God is revealed as a Love that seeks expression in the good of the other. And God, fully in the Three Persons of the Trinity, faithfully continues to love us first through a continual self-emptying.

Now we too are invited to do the same; to imitate God’s self-giving love. It is a call that is renewed each time we face natural disasters.

The suffering of others invites us to solidarity, which gives birth to our own kenosis. Our own suffering also invites us to kenosis as we can imitate Christ in “offering up” our suffering for the redemption of others.

For further reflection
Consider prayerfully reading the following Scripture passage:

"We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose ... If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him... What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword ... For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
— Rom 8:28, 31-32, 35, 38-39

Reflection Questions:
1. Reflect for a few moments on this passage. What is the one thing that can make all the difference to us in the midst of suffering? Why is this one thing so important? What does it give us?

2. How might this passage help you discuss why a good God would allow suffering with a non-believer?

Doug Culp is the delegate for administration and the secretary for pastoral life for the Catholic Diocese of Lexington.