God's Love and Our Suffering

I think, for most of us, it is easy to believe God unconditionally loves us in the cross of Christ when things are going well in our lives.  When our lives are free from suffering, we find joy in God's love.

When suffering comes into our lives, though, we may find it difficult to believe God really loves us in Christ.  It is in times of suffering when our faith in the unfathomable love of God for us is challenged.  After all, if God loves us so much, then why has he allowed us to suffer?

I think God not only understands our struggle, but he also respects it.  In fact, he respects it so much that he became one of us in the person of Christ, and experienced suffering.  Consider that Jesus lost his dear friend, John the Baptist, his foster father, St. Joseph, was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, and was denied by St. Peter.  And on the cross, our Lord cried out in our name, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  He, without losing his faith, became one with our struggle to harmonize God's love and suffering.  As such, our Lord has shown us that the two can, and do, fit together.  The one (suffering) does not cancel out the other (God's love in the face of the crucified Christ).

Our Lord and God understands and sympathizes with our struggle of faith in times of suffering.  Let us draw near him often for the grace to believe in God's love in the dark times of our lives.