This is a valley of tears. God created man. Man rebelled. Ever since we have all rebelled. We know what God commands, but we make an excuses because we often want to do things our way. But God gave us free will.
With free will comes the paradigm we live in. Good vs. Evil. Hope vs. despair. Faith vs doubt. Charity vs. hatred.
The result is punishment. We are all being punished. We have all sinned. We have all contributed to the collective fallen, sinful, rebellious state of mankind.
We all then must have pain and suffering as central to our mortal life. It is God’s justice. Even victim souls are justly enduring horrific suffering from a just God. That is a mystery Job wrestled with but accepted. That made him holy and pleasing to God. That gave him merit for his salvation.
But God is love. There is absolutely no contradiction between an all good and loving God and the miseries of life He allows many to suffer.
If we stand up and embrace our cross, and each time we fall down we get up, but keep climbing up our own personal Calvary, and not ever give up, to the very end, we will have eternal reward.
See my last post about my health crisis. God has given me recently a cross. I can’t wrap my mind around it. In the end the hard truths of life according to the Christian Faith, which I talked about above, sustain me. By God’s grace I am able to persevere as long as this cross lasts, until my judgment day. Even though the experience of my cross seems unbearable, that is false because the objective truth is it is in fact bearable. Where bearable means able to live without falling into actual despair no matter how miserable the condition.
This little tiny life is a sliver of time compared to eternity. Everything we aim for: health, education, job, money, house, social status family, earthly happiness, all of it, it all means absolutely nothing…except as a means to the ultimate end after death. To be judged by God and hopefully found worthy of eternal life with Him.
There is no guarantee. We can’t assume that if I go to church and pay my taxes and wave to my neighbor that I am truly pleasing in the eyes of God and worthy of heaven if I die today. If I go to the sacraments regularly, and pray, and follow the commandments, I have assurance of salvation. But not certainty.
The devil is riding you hard core from the moment you were born until your soul leaves your body after death. He is so bitter to God that only one thing will seemingly satisfy him, to damn your soul and as many souls as possible. It seems satisfying, but the irony is that no person is or will ever be punished with as much eternal torment as the devil and all devils.
This life is a gigantic battle for souls. It is spiritual warfare. The forces of good are trying to destroy God’s creation, especially mankind.
We have no other choice than to accept what God gives us in this life, every pain and suffering, every torment and misery. As much as those experiences seem unacceptable and beyond reason, it is the raw reality of life, which God perfectly understands as part of His plan. To save souls.
Life is a mystery. It seems like a paradox. But it is a positive paradox. There seem to be inherent contradictions between an all good God and the horrors of life, but it is a only an appearance of contradiction. God allows evil for our own eventual good.
All the news headlines seem now empty to me. As fun as it was support Trump, or prepare for WW3 through prepping, or follow hot cultural political topics like gender or race, it will all pass away in the end.
Shopping malls, neighborhoods, big screen TVs, marriages, domestic family life, careers, health, and ultimately our very life will in the end pass away.
And then there will only be two realities. One, an abyss of fire consuming damned souls in absolute misery forever. And two, a celestial city of divine bliss, the Beatific Vision, and never again any pain or suffering whatsoever. Only joy and peace.
Forever.
So we wrap our arms around our cross. We stand up and look upward. And we pray for God’s grace.