“The value of human suffering”

 

18^th Wk (Mt 16:24-28)

I.                     What is the value of human suffering?  Bakit may paghihirap sa mundo?

-          If ever God tolerates or allows suffering or misfortune, it is because he wants us to become the kind of person he wants to be.  At first or as of the moment, you will find it difficult to see the wisdom behind your sufferings, but later you will understand.

-          E.g. parents giving discipline to their children.

-          Sufferings are occasions for spiritual growth.  They are moments of purification.

II.                   Sufferings are natural parts and parcels of human life.  When God became man, he was not exempted from human sufferings. He himself experienced and endured human sufferings.  He shared with our sufferings.  Why?

-          Precisely to give meaning and value to human sufferings.

-          Now, our sufferings are our own participation in God’s own suffering.

-          And the more we participate in God’s own suffering, we become more united with him, the more we become one with him. Communion.

-          Communion of life and communion of love.

III.           Life is life when it is a participation in God’s own life.