Brothers and sisters, Peace and Good to you in the name of Jesus. I've been reflecting a lot on the nature and purpose of human suffering and Bl. Pope John Paul the Great's encyclical letter Salvifici Doloris has been a great help to me in this regard. I want to share with you his conclusion:
These words about love, about actions of love, acts linked with human suffering, enable us once more to discover, at the basis of all human sufferings, the same redemptive suffering of Christ. Christ said: "You did it to me". He himself is the one who in each individual experiences love; he himself is the one who receives help, when this is given to every suffering person without exception. He himself is present in this suffering person, since his salvific suffering has been opened once and for all to every human suffering. And all those who suffer have been called once and for all to become sharers "in Christ's sufferings"(98), just as all have been called to "complete" with their own suffering "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions"(99). At one and the same time Christ has taught man to do good by his suffering and to do good to those who suffer. In this double aspect he has completely revealed the meaning of suffering.Commentary. I've found out in my conversations with many people, many of them devout Protestants - and some functionally Protestant Catholics - are convinced that suffering comes from the evil one, that it is to avoided or cured at all costs, and that it doesn't serve any corredemptive purpose. Their view is that human beings cannot co-merit with Christ for the salvation of the world.
This is the meaning of suffering, which is truly supernatural and at the same time human. It is supernatural because it is rooted in the divine mystery of the Redemption of the world, and it is likewise deeply human, because in it the person discovers himself, his own humanity, his own dignity, his own mission.
This view is based upon a faulty understanding of Scripture clearly states:
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church...(Colossians 1:24, Douay-Rheims).In his eternal mercy, God the Father has grafted the suffering of his children into the sufferings of his son Jesus Christ, so that in Jesus' suffering, our suffering acquires an infinite value, becoming a full participation in Jesus' redemptive sacrifice.
No other way, no other religion, teaches that men and women can and do become sharers in Christ's divine nature to the point they share in his sufferings. Only Christianity and among the many Christianities, only the Catholic Church holds to the fullness of this teaching through all the consequences; consequences that we readily see in the lives (and deaths) of many saints and blesseds, including Blessed Pope John Paul the Great.