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My thoughts on 'morning offering's' meditations of the day.

“Jesus will turn your sorrow into joy. One can only imagine the shock and bewilderment the Apostles felt when the Lord told them he must go away. Though they could not understand it at the time, his departure was for their benefit. The same is true of the unexpected setbacks and tragedies we experience in this life . . . When I consider the times when I have been confounded by events that seemed so contrary to what I thought God wanted for me, I should be mindful that they were permitted by the Lord’s inscrutable providence for my own good, as difficult as that might be to fathom.”


—Patrick Madrid, p. 251




Passages like this strike many people as depressing and maybe even morbid. Why would God want you to suffer?, they ask. I believe God wants you to be happy, they continue. The whole idea of suffering is so repulsive to most people that they cannot reconcile it with the idea of a loving God.


This is particularly true in two cases;

  1. The eternal suffering of hell

  2. The suffering of the innocent.


The first seems to contradict the concept of mercy and the second seems to contradict the concept of Justice. In each case, we arrive at the wrong conclusion because of our inability to see the full picture, which only God can see.


The idea of an eternal hell is certainly one I struggled with in the past. As I read somewhere, It seems to defy all sense of proportionality. It shocks us to imagine that no amount of suffering, no duration of it, is sufficient to pay for past sins. No amount of repentance will be able to obtain mercy. This is the shocking image of hell. We imagine a soul eternally pleading for one more chance, a soul crying out in remorse and begging for mercy only to get a stopped ear for eternity.


We make a few crucial mistakes here. First, we assume that contrition comes from us. Contrition is the result of grace given by God. When we spend a lifetime refusing that grace, it is withdrawn. We get what we want. This is not to say that we get the consequences we want but the consequences we receive are God's perfect justice because of our obstinate will in refusing His mercy. In life, the unrepentant mortal sinner refuses God's mercy and chooses His Justice. Madness.


A soul in hell surely desires to be free of the pains but it would not, even if given the chance, repent and submit to God's will. It is fixed in it's opposition and hatred.


The suffering of the innocent is just as perplexing to us. It also shocks our sensibilities. If we see suffering as a punishment, how can the innocent suffer, who are guilty of nothing?


We, again, fail to see the manifold wisdom of God.


True, it is the devil, not God, who desires to make the innocent suffer but God is able to use the suffering of the innocent to pay off the debt of the guilty.


Exhibit A- the Crucifixion.


We join Jesus in suffering for sinners- not just ourselves.


"For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." Romans 8:15-17



These daily meditations on morningoffering.com are so priceless because they help us persevere in our pain, knowing that our suffering is more valuable than gold.


What a truly amazing website. We highly endorse it.








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