Dealing with thorns
In the Second Reading at Mass this weekend we had my favourite passage from Paul:
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
The question of suffering is one that everyone has to struggle with at some point. For a good treatment on the subject I would invite you to head over to Canterbury Tales to read Taylor’s article Why do we suffer? The theological answer of St. Paul:
Nearly every religion seeks to make sense of the problem of pain. If God is both omnibenificent {all-loving} and omnipotent {all-powerful}, why then does He allow us to suffer?
The Eastern traditions such as Buddhism dismiss pain and suffering as “unreal.” This solution is difficult to explain to a child with cancer.
Other religious traditions attempt to accrue “good karma” in order to ensure that good times will come with a future reincarnated life. For these traditions, the origin of suffering is past sins, even sins committed in previous lives.
Still other religions, such as Islam, seem to place the origin of suffering in the capricious “will of Allah.”
The Catholic Faith offers an entirely different account of suffering… Continue Reading
