Manual for Suffering

By Jeffrey Kirby S.T.L.

If God is so good and so powerful, why is there suffering in our world? Why do good people suffer so much? How can we find value and meaning in the midst of the fallenness of the world?

These questions—and many others—call for answers. The responses will determine our worldview and way of life. In the Manual for Suffering, the revealed, time-tested, and holistic answer from the depths of the Catholic faith is presented in all its beauty and power.

This manual will also provide spiritual aids to navigate and bear with hope and trust the suffering we encounter in our fallen world.

The first part lays out the biblical and theological foundations for suffering and the world's fallenness, while the second offers aids for those who suffer, including passages and excerpts from:

• Scriptural texts;
• magisterial teachings;
• the writings of the saints;
• and traditional Catholic prayers and devotionals.

The purpose of this manual is to help those who suffer find the meaning, purpose, and value of suffering with and in Jesus Christ. It is intended for personal use and private reflection, and to share with those we love who need a guide and companion as they walk along the via crucis, the path of the Cross.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TAN Books
• Release date: Nov 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781505118773

Book preview

HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL

n our devotional tradition, we call this life a vale of tears. While life is good, we know that it is fallen. The original harmony that God desired for us, and for our world, was broken by the tragic consequences of sin. Sin has damaged the goodness and beauty of our human nature and of creation. Thus, we struggle with natural evils, moral evil, and universal evils. Each of these evils pose their own cycles of hurt and harm.

It’s for this reason that I am grateful you picked up this manual. My heart goes out to each of you, and especially to those who are particularly suffering. We each have our questions, our frustrations, and our anxieties. We want to know why we suffer, why our loved ones suffer, why there is suffering at all. How can a good and all-powerful God permit suffering?

This manual will seek to provide answers. It will also provide spiritual aids to help in navigating and dealing with suffering in our fallen world.

The first part lays out the biblical and theological foundations for suffering and the world’s fallenness. The second part offers aids for those who suffer: scriptural texts, magisterial teachings, words and anecdotes from the saints, prayers and devotionals.

The purpose of this manual is to help those who suffer find the meaning, purpose, and value of suffering in Jesus Christ. It is intended for personal use and private reflection. It’s meant to be a guide and companion to those along the via crucis, the path of the cross, the path along the way of the sufferings and sorrows of this fallen world.

Our prayer is that many people will find the answers they seek and hope they need through the pages of this manual. We pray that people will begin to see their sufferings, and the sufferings of our world, through the lens of divine wisdom and the providential care of our heavenly Father.

And by finding such consolation and encouragement, we pray that every person of goodwill may find the reason to always and boldly rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer (Rom 12:12)!

PART ONE

The Mystery of Suffering

1

THE PERENNIAL QUESTION

The Pressing Inquiry of Fallen Humanity

ome years ago, I was called to the hospital room of a dying woman. Amidst the security measures of the intensive care unit, the beeping machines, and the scurrying of nurses, I made my way to the person in need. When I arrived in the room, there was a man sleeping in a chair and another standing by his mother’s bedside. The woman was skeletal in appearance and heavily sedated. Her son saw me come in and offered a half smile. He looked exhausted.

I introduced myself and offered to celebrate the Last Rites. He thanked me and asked what he needed to do. I told him he could stay where he was and that we could pray together. I asked if his sibling would want to join us, but he told me that his brother had just fallen sleep and was in real need of some rest. He also told me his brother had been away from the Church for some time. I nodded and agreed that we would just begin the rituals.

After the celebration of the Last Rites, I could tell the son needed someone to be with him. I stayed for a while, silently praying, when suddenly he began to cry. But he tried to muffle his cries. He was trying to be strong.

Eventually, he told me, Mom has been through so much. The cancer was hard enough, but then all kinds of other things just started happening. It was too much. She couldn’t fight them all. Then he looked at me and said, I wish you could have known my mother before all this. She was fearless. He took out his phone. I want to show you a picture of my mom before this all happened.

He was tired and it took him awhile to find the picture. When he finally found it, I was shocked. The woman was robust, bright-faced, and beautiful. The man noticed my reaction and said, Father, that was only about a year ago.

This exchange brought about a few more tears. He held his mother’s hand and fell into deep thought. I waited and prayed. When he was ready, he raised his head and looked halfway up. He said to me, "Father, this is terrible. I can’t believe this is happening. Please help me. Please explain why God would let my mother suffer like this?

And there it is! Such a question becomes the pressing inquiry of fallen humanity. It can be found in every heart, in different ways and in diverse sufferings, throughout the history of the human family.

We all ask the questions in one way or another: Why do we suffer? Why do our loved ones suffer? Why is there suffering at all?

Answering the Question

In this manual, we will address the vast world of human suffering.

In part one, you will find a systematic answer to the perennial question of human suffering. For our answer, we will draw from the sacred narrative of our salvation as contained in the Sacred Scriptures, as well as our vast Sacred Tradition and its theological reflections and insights.

In part two, you will find a collection of biblical, theological, and spiritual works that address suffering, as well as specific prayers from the Church’s spiritual treasury for particular needs and sufferings.

The Lay of a Fallen Land

Now, therefore, we stand before the mystery of suffering and what St. Paul called the mystery of lawlessness (2 Thes 2:7). The horizon is regrettably vast, tragic, and heartbreaking. But our questions compel us to seek answers. We want to know why there is suffering.

As we initiate our search for the answer to the overall question of evil and suffering, we need to make some distinctions. These distinctions will help us keep a clear mind, receive the different parts of the answer to human suffering, make the answer digestible to us, and help us to integrate it into our hearts and live it in our lives.

And so we distinguish between three major types of evil in our fallen world.

Such categories include:

1. suffering caused by natural evils,

2. suffering inflicted by moral evil,

3. and suffering that is caused by universal evils.

All three types of suffering are the results of our fallen world.

The first type of suffering consists in part of the hurt and harm caused by natural evils, such as tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, pandemics, hurricanes, flooding, cancer, dementia, heart disease, miscarriages, physical disabilities, depression, mental illnesses, emotional disorders, and famine, among many others. These sufferings require a broader understanding of theological truths since no act of human freedom directly caused them.

The second type of suffering consists in part of the heartache and agony inflicted by moral evil, such as lies, betrayal, financial misfortunes, loss of meaning, divorce, wayward children, broken hearts, rejection, loneliness, addictions to gambling, drugs, alcohol, and pornography, as well as child abuse, domestic violence, dissatisfaction with life, unrequited love, disordered affections, gay marriage, overeating, poor self-image, empty relationships, abortion, sorrow over the loss of a loved one, unemployment, discrimination, broken and estranged relationships, and many others. Of the three types of suffering, these inflictions can cause the most sorrow since they are usually accompanied by an act of human freedom, and oftentimes bring moral guilt with them for acts of omission or commission by one or all of the parties involved.

The third type of suffering consists of universal acts of destruction or desecration. These include, in part, the horrors of war, killing fields, concentration camps, nuclear bombs, networks of human trafficking, economic recessions, and many others. This type of suffering reminds us that we are a part of a fallen race. They are oftentimes accompanied by a profound sense of helplessness and powerlessness in the individual heart.

This is our fallen lot. This is the lay of a fallen world. We do not live in a heaven on earth. There is no place, and no heart, without suffering. And this reality—our state of affairs in this life—needs an explanation.

Why do we suffer?

With these distinctions in mind, let’s begin our answer. Here is a systemic presentation of the biblical and theological answer to the question of evil and suffering in the world and in our lives.

2

OUR ORIGINAL GOODNESS

God Created All Things Good

he Bible leaves no stone unturned when it comes to explaining the cause of evil and suffering. As we seek to understand these biblical truths, we must go back to the very beginnings of our creation. It is a beautiful story that turned tragic, but it still provides us with great insights that can help us understand the origins of human suffering.

The Bible recounts that the heavens and the earth were created by God. They were good. He chose to crown his creation with the human person, made in his own image and likeness, with a share in his own reason and spiritual powers.

God’s love is declared in our very creation: God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Gn 1:27).

Pope Benedict XVI summarized these truths well in the homily of his Mass for the Inauguration of a Pontificate, when he preached, We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.

Humanity was created in love. We were blessed with a singular relationship with God. Created in such a way, we dwell as persons, with both a soul and a body.

The angels must have marveled at our creation: a creature that weds both spirit and matter. The early teachers of our faith rightly saw us as an amphibian, a frontier being, and a microcosm, since we live and pass in between the worlds of matter and spirit. In this position, we held a natural priesthood in creation. We were the height of the material world, and it relied on us for its spiritual expression and its place before our loving Father. In our being, the material world is offered to God, and through us, it receives his grace. This began with our father, Adam, when he named all creatures (see Gn 2:20), and it was meant to continue throughout time.

Born from such love in our original creation, and dwelling as both body and spirit, we held an intimate bond with God, unique among all creation. We knew him to be our loving Father and we walked with him in grace-filled fellowship. We were endowed with preternatural gifts and held a privileged status within the created world. In this state of original justice, there was a harmonious balance between our bodies and souls. Because of this state, our souls held mastery over our bodies, and both our bodies and souls shared the inheritance of eternal life. As such, our bodies, as well as our souls, were immortal.

Practically, this meant that we would never get sick, suffer, or die. These were not a part of the original plan. God did not create us to suffer.

In our original state, we also dwelled in tranquility with one another, as we see in the relationship between our first parents. There was no pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, or wrath. The early human family—consisting of husband and wife—were without these deadly sins. All was peaceful and all was good.

In our pre-fallen state, we also possessed a peaceful rapport with the rest of the created world. We saw it as a sacred trust and cooperated with it prudently and wisely. Creation wasn’t seen as raw matter to be used and abused but as a gift from God. We didn’t seek to be masters over the created world. We sought to exercise a tempered stewardship over the creation that was entrusted to us by our loving Father.

The grace of our creation led the psalmist to exclaim:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than the angels,

and you have crowned him with glory and honor. (Ps 8:3–5)

Charity and the Moral Law

Early in my priesthood, I was assigned to a very close-knit parish. I got to know many of the young families and become a real part of their lives. As things turned out, many of these families were going to see their first child leave for college at the same time. I realized how difficult it was going to be for many of the parents since I was also feeling the bitter sweetness of watching so many young people leave the parish.

In the whirlwind of this emotion, I decided to broaden by perspective and do some serious research as I prepared a power-packed farewell homily. As the summer moved along and I spent time with the various families, I asked the parents what they most hoped that their children would remember or do during their time in college. As these conversations occurred, I kept notes of the various points that were made or emphasized.

My original thought was to include some of these reflections into the homily, but I got something I wasn’t really expecting, and it was actually much more powerful. It took me awhile to realize it, but as I looked over my notes, a theme began to present itself:

I hope my child doesn’t think that he’s the center of the world.

I pray she remains true to herself.

I really hope he keeps going to Mass and stays close to the Church.

I pray that she calls home and invites us into her new life.

I hope he respects others and makes good friends.

I pray she honors her body and the bodies of others.

I hope he remains truthful and sincere.

And the list went on with related points and similar sentiments.

Only after reviewing these points all together did I see the obvious. These parents, who loved their children and wanted what was absolutely best for them, were summarizing, albeit in contemporary jargon, the Ten Commandments.

Seen in this light, we can understand that the moral law is given to us by God, who, as a loving Father, desires what is truly best for us. The moral law is not a raw exercise in divine power. It’s not a repression of our freedom or creativity. The moral law is given to us so that we can know how we are called to live as the children of God. The moral law is the recipe for virtue, happiness, and the highest of success in our fallen world.

With this understanding, we go back to our first parents and to the first moral directive given by God.

Adam and Eve were the first of all human persons and the holders of human nature itself. They were given an unimaginable state of grace and told not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (cf. Gn 2:16–17). This directive respected the perimeters of human nature. It was part of the blessing since it showed us our limitations. It called us to know ourselves, to trust our loving Father, to love and obey him, and to acknowledge him as the Author of the laws that govern all things, including the moral law of right and wrong (cf. Gn 3:1–11; Rom 5:19).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges the use of figurative language in the initial portion of the book of Genesis (390), which means some aspect of the Genesis account may be a symbol of something else.

As such, the fruit in the account is not merely a pear or an apple but actually represents something far more deviant—namely, the desire of our first parents to take what was not theirs, to grasp at God’s majesty for themselves on their own terms, and to become for themselves the sole standard in determining what is right or wrong. Such rebellion would wreak havoc on our first parents and the human nature they held. It would cause untold harm and inflict terrible wounds in human nature. God knew these consequences, which is why he called us to avoid such fruit and to trustingly dwell in his love and peace.

An example from a different order of nature can help us realize the evil that God was seeking to prevent for us.

Imagine if a horse were somehow able to usurp human nature. If that horse were to take human nature and force it into his own horse nature. What would be the result? Obviously, human nature being forced into the nature of a horse would cause immense confusion, chaos, and disability. Not only would the horse fail to become a human being, but his own horse nature would be fallen, greatly wounded, and uncertain of itself. If we can imagine such a peculiar state, then we can begin to comprehend the actions of our first parents.

By seeking to take the divine nature upon themselves, Adam and Eve tried to force the divine nature into our human nature. It was as foolish an act as a horse trying to steal a human nature for itself. As such, this act of hubris by our first parents caused immense damage to our human nature. Harmony was forfeited. Chaos ruled. Wounds were inflicted. Unity was lost on all levels.

Perhaps a different example might also help us. The selfish action of our first parents has been compared to a beautiful palace—strong, magnificent, and harmonious—that suddenly becomes the recipient of an act of violence as someone throws a grenade into it. The grenade detonates and the explosion rocks the structure. And while the palace walls sustain the explosion and remain standing, everything inside is thrown into disarray. Things are in shambles; confusion is ripe. Dismay rules the day.

These examples illustrate the internal consequences of the first sin. They show us the tragic results of trying to take a power that cannot be handled within the limitations of our nature. These examples illustrate the devastation laid upon human nature by the Fall.

3

THE FALL FROM GRACE

Our Rebellion

n response to the kindness of our heavenly Father and in reaction against his charitable prohibition, our first