Why Does God Allow Suffering? - Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon
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- Опубликовано: 16 июн 2024
- Friends, God is close to us, even in our suffering. But it seems inexplicable that he could preside over our calamities, and so we ask, “How could God do this to me?” But the Lord’s ways are not our ways, and our capacity to truly understand his will is limited. We must therefore place our trust in God’s infinite and intimate care for our souls.
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Your story of Tiger is not silly. It's a very good analogy. We humans are indeed unable to see through God's eyes, so we are clueless. Therefore we must choose to trust Him and cling to His love in that incapacitating suffering.
The difference is I didn't design or create the dog; if I had, and I had the ability, I would create the dog so that it CAN understand. The real question is why create man such that he can't understand. An obvious copout answer, and ultimately a vacuous answer, would be that anything finite is infinitely less than anything infinite.
@@LarryRiedel to work through your “I would create the dog so that it CAN understand.” critique, here’s the way I see it:
Owner calls and dog runs away in disobedience chasing something and runs straight through a barbed wire fence.
Owner takes dog to the vet. Holds dog while vet administers shots and stitches. Dog looks at owner in pain and dismay thinking “what are you doing? I will never trust you again!”
That is where your story ends. However, the story is not finished yet. In that moment you are correct the dog cannot understand. It IS beyond its ability. However, after a few minutes, hours, or maybe even a day, the pain goes away for good and it is at that point that the dog CAN understand and in understanding trusts its master more than ever before. “It was for my good after all.” So it CAN understand after all.
Likewise, our story is not done either until our lives are over and we move up to our own understanding with our Master and Owner.
The story doesn’t end where you think it does, my friend. At least that’s just how I see it, I don’t know about you or anyone else, that’s just my take.
Got to think outside the confines of the here and now, the prison of time. God is beyond time.
As the man said “Totaliter Aliter.”
Peace.
@@robertgray8103 Dogs don't retrospectively ponder previous events and understand them in context. If they were smart enough to do that they could understand the prophylactic shots. If a human is not given contextual information about the future, that has nothing to with human vs divine nature or infinite vs finite or "totaliter aliter", it has to do with missing contextual information which would be completely within human ability to understand, and is why an eight year old can understand why a tetanus shot may be worth the pain.
@@LarryRiedel it’s Analogy. When it comes to analogy which is the greater leap of ridiculousness here? To deploy an analogy between the brain of a dog vs. the brain and capacity of a human (which you have quite rightly pointed out is flawed) OR to deploy the analogy of man’s capacity to comprehend vs. God’s absolute wisdom?
Surely, there is a closer relationship between a dog’s capacity to understand and a human’s capacity to understand THAN there is between man’s capacity and God’s capacity. To judge God by using our own limited capacity would seem at best the height of all arrogance.
Unfortunately though, I’m getting the impression that you don’t so much have an inquisitive mind as a closed off one on this matter. That is to say you want to be right. We all do at times on certain matters. I do hope I’m wrong though in which case I apologize for having insulted you. Either way, the world needs more thinkers such as yourself and I commend you and wish you well, my brother.
I do hope you will engage with someone better versed on these matters and of superior teaching skills than myself. I hope you find the answers and peace which you are looking for. God Bless You.
Peace.
@@robertgray8103 As I first said, I consider invocation of the idea of finite vs infinite in this context to be an obvious and vacuous copout answer, and it's debatable whether what distinguishes a dog from a man in this context is brain; on the contrary, the case could be made that man is more analogous to God than to a dog.
Your example with Tiger was not a silly example at all. It has clarified this for me. Thank you.
Thank you Bishop Barron for your wisdom. I work in paediatric healthcare and often see the bewilderment on the faces of children as they look to their parents for help in their pain and suffering. I see the heartbreak on the faces of their parents knowing they cannot explain the reason to their child but holding them and comforting them nonetheless. I am inspired by the response of the children when they continue to place their trust in their parents. It reminds me to come to my loving Father always. That even when understanding fails, faith must remain.
Anna Mullins You are truly a blessed woman. You are willing day in and day out to experience the "Good Fridays" of the most vulnerable among us. Thank you for being the visible Christ in this imperfect, perplexing world.
@@JamesRichardWiley I know. I'm 63 and have grappled with it all my life. For me, it all comes down to my belief that Christ did rise from the dead. All else flows from that. I will never understand suffering in this life, especially the tragic, senseless kind to good people who make everyone else's life more beautiful and comfortable. My sister died of breast cancer almost 12 years ago. Her physical and psychological suffering was prolonged and immense. But her love for her daughters, our parents, her friends and me was so profound and intense, that she was willing to endure the unendurable. She refused to take ocycontin most of the time because she wanted to remain aware of what was going on. She rejected hospice care until her final days. I still am haunted by the suffering I witnessed, but concurrently remain awed that any human being could love that selflessly and sacrificially. The belief that she is now in perfect communion with God and still loves us perfectly sustains me and keeps despair at bay. I try to live each day being worthy of her love, and actively love her by loving her children and grandchildren. I am probably a fool, James, but will probably die a fool for Christ.
What brought you to Father Barron's video?
All the best to you.
James Richard Wiley I have had my butt go red, anytime I lied or directly disobeyed my parents. Now I have learned from the lesson to not lie or directly disobey anyone. That was some of the greatest love I have received from my parents. It made me a better person.
God bless you
Sometime all we have is to trust in our Lord! There is suffering in our lives and he lightens the load often! But his Goodness is even greater; and hears our prayers in his time! Can anyone truly determine
the will of God all the time?
Enjoyed all the different views shared!
Watched with my son this AM and we both loved it. The vet story is one I’ll use forever to help explain “why”. Thank You!
Maybe that was the real purpose of Tiger's appointment. An analogy for us to use, and the fruits of this sermon.
Ditto to everything you said !!
That's so encouraging to hear.
I am not a! I occur in the q
I occur in the world! I
The Bishop is crushing it every Sunday. Well done. Thank you. And God bless.
"God, why don't You do something about all the terrible suffering in the world?!"
I did.
I MADE YOU !
I clearly see the Christ in you Bishop Barron.
Best explanation of the problem of suffering I've ever heard, and I've been looking for 40 years. Thank you Bishop Barron.
Very true !!! Love the way Bishop Barron talks about suffering, I can better understand this now...🙏🙏🙏
@@patsy7101 How ridiculous. He gave no explanation at all. After making a series of mutually contradictory statements (God is totally other and God id closer to me than I am to myself) he states that we don't and can not understand why we suffer because God's way of thinking is distant from ours. That is not an explanation of suffering; it is dishonest noise implying an admission that he has no satisfactory explanation.
Thank you Bishop Robert. I'm a member of the seculat Franciscan order, and I always listen to your speeches, because they convey the Holy Spirit. It's a pleasure to share them with my wife and friends . God bless you, Peace and all Good. Dave
Again you have given us a clear and engaging homily about how much we will have to learn about the Father. You are making this journey possible.
Thank you!
He's an incredible man of God ! Love you Bishop Barron keep up the awesome work you are a light to so many !
James Richard Wiley I believe and I am not expert yet on the Bible nor God. Man corrupted the Earth by falling into sin. The world was good before man fell into sin. Thus man started doing horrible things. M*rder, r*pe, and etc.
James Richard Wiley
Are you going to comment substance-less mockery and rhetoric on every comment here?
It's just like a dog, he will never understand how a laptop works, or if there exists a moon orbiting the earth, just as we will never be able to explain to the dog in the dog's way of thinking about those things, because he has no capacity to understand them. But God, infinitely higher than us, can somehow shrink Himself so that we can see and understand Him through reasoned faith.
Laptops and dogs eh!
We must also look at ourselves and behavior . If all of humanity truly abandoned sin and lived under His law alone there would be no more suffering !
Thank you Bishop! "I don't know..." best answer. For indeed suffering is not a problem to be solved, but a Mystery to be lived.
As someone who, in my spiritual journey, has questioned multiple times why there is so much suffering in this world, I find comfort in today’s readings. His thoughts are indeed higher than our thoughts, beyond our understanding.
James Richard Wiley He is Hebrew, yes you are correct. I don’t see that as a negative or positive. Unless you are crazy Nazi, which I don’t think you are. He is tribal, kinda I see it more as a monarchy. More feudal than anything, he allows leaders to govern nations, but throws them out if they do evil with elections or revolution. Yes he is present everywhere. Lastly welcome to faith. Trusting what we can’t see, which is hard, but it is supposed to be hard. Following God is not supposed to be easy.
Thank you for your message today. I too, as a mother who is suffering of the loss of my son Mark. With the struggle of not having a pastor who had the care to call....struggle is realm but my God is my Rock and faith He will keep His loving arms around me. You are a wonderful Gift to so many Bishop Barron....may God continue to bless you and all your endeavors.
Yes loss of a child is an unexpected tragedy. May God console you.
God never causes the trials we face or the suffering that follows. To do so would be wicked, but the scriptures say, “God does not act wickedly.”Job 34:12.
I think Robert Barron is superb and what he teaches so grounded in the faith. This talk is very encouraging. However, I think of a friend whose father raped him when he was small and I am not sure how the fact that God’s ways are higher than ours, or the Vet analogy, would really help in that case. Trusting God is so damn difficult after going through intense trauma and pain, but we choose with our will to do so even though our feelings may take a lifetime to catch up.
There's no consistency. The answers are as many as there are priests in sunday homilies. Falsehood are many, but there's only one truth.
Thanks to the Holy Spirit giving you the wisdom to come up with such good analogy. May His Peace be with you always.
There's no consistency. The answers are as many as there are priests in sunday homilies. Falsehood are many, but there's only one truth.
There is no triumph without adversity
There is no free will without choice
There is no love without fear or hate
And if everything is perfect, nothing and no one is special
So you are saying your comment is god's supposed unknowable or incomprehensible reason why there's suffering? You are special, if you have access to god's thoughts.. 😏
@@terminusadquem6981 Well, I've studied Him more than you have. So, compared to you, yes.
@@silverscorpio24 Oh, so you are better than the bishop.. 😏 he said god's thoughts and ways are different from us.. which implies that only god knows his reasons, yet you seem to know these thoughts and ways.. are you god, perhaps? 😏
@@terminusadquem6981 I never said I was better than the bishop. I said I know more about God than you do.
Because unless you're under the delusion that *you are* God then all you're trying to do is trying to make fun of me and trying to make me seem stupid for being Christian.
Does the fact that Christ suffered for us bear significance to our suffering? I see it as an act of LOVE.
James Richard Wiley Man you are good at pumping these comments out, so am I though. God did not have to go through suffering. He was perfect in every way. He voluntarily went down to Earth to live with man. He felt starvation, sickness, pain, etc. He even used the bathroom I bet. He went through all that to tell us that he is with us and loves us. That he is there to give us advice. He even had the experience of death. Not only that but a gruesome one. Stop with the half-a*s comments. Get a grip on yourself, if you think you are so high and mighty, also above us religious folk, why try to convince us God is a sham. Why not let us wonder off to our “doom”
I've watched it from Brazil. Thank you Bishop Barron for these wisdom words. God bless you!!
Excellent analogy. Even suffering can be filled with joy if we just accept it. "In everything give thanks."
His plans for the believer's life are far superior to their own; his love & mercy surpasses all wickedness.
Praise and Glory be to the lord.😇
That analogy of you and Tiger wasn't stupid at all. In fact in its innocent simplicity, it conveyed a deep, rich understanding of our relationship with God. I do however question the conflict of God providing joy and peace but then allow suffering.
Good question.... a real homily that is interesting......I too have to wonder why God allows suffering......especially now with this virus disrupting our lives, causing so much to worry about, many suffering in so many ways.......listening to your homilies is so different to the quick, short ones from the priests at my parish.....every night I pray to God which is like a conversation and I sleep good all night......Thank you Bishop Barron.
James Richard Wiley I have noticed you just comment, but never debate. Also your comments are more mockery than anything, which I don’t recommend when debating about super religious peoples one and only GOD. Bishop Barron directly discusses this on his video “creating atheists”. He talk about from Atheist website for creating atheists, how you just keep asking questions, but don’t answer questions creationists ask back. Also when this tactic is pointed out, you fall flat. If you also watched this video. The bishop answers a the question on why bad things happen. Gods ways are far more complex then our ways. Now this probably won’t be the answer you want, but this is the answer creationists get. Hell, sometimes I don’t believe it. So, start adding to the conversation and debate back. Quit throwing out strawmans and walking away thinking you are triumphant. Also I see you in almost every video the Bishop puts out. Can’t you spend more time on something else if you don’t think there is a afterlife. You should be doing as much as you can with this life, not trying to debate people online who are just like you in death. Nothing but worm food. You probably didn’t read any of this. That’s ok, I understand, but if you want to argue, be prepared to defend it.
Thank you, Bishop Barron!
In the simplicity of Tiger, Jesus, I trust in You! Thank you for holding me.
OMG, how much simpler you put in words everything , I love your preaching, can't wait to next Sunday.God bless you.
Bishop Baron, the most expressive, brilliant interpreter of Gods word and teaching. God Bless Him in his important work.
Thank you, Bishop Baron, for this beautiful sermon and for all you do to continue to build God‘s kingdom! I loved your story of Tiger at the vet! I am a principal at a Catholic elementary school in Wisconsin, and I cannot wait to share that story with my faculty, and most especially my students at school! God bless you for all you do!
Thanks so much Bishop for a great lesson. I was also taught many years ago that God allows suffering because he can obtain good from suffering and evil. This is not always seen at the time of pain and tragedy, but part of his enormous plan for good.
Funny how he said you can't know god's thoughts and his ways yet you seem to be able to know, as I can see in your comment. 🤣🤣🤭
@@terminusadquem6981
Of course we cannot know Gods thoughts but of course we know God is infinitely good😁
I'm not Catholic, but thank you for your sermon (or mini-sermon). I've been dealing with the sudden loss of a friend who was my age (32) this week. To top it off, I've been fighting intense spiritual warfare on and off as well. The questions of why? Has God abandoned listening to me? Does He even care? Do I even have a future if any one of us can go so young? And then there's how I'm supposed to deal with it as I come from a family where you don't talk about it. These questions are difficult to grapple with even though I know I must move through the grieving process.
I keep trying to remind myself that God does have a plan for everything that happens. But we can't necessarly understand it. We're temporal beings bound to a finite level of existence. God is atemporal - existing outside of time and space within Creation at every moment. Yahweh (I AM) is truly an appropriate name. Like God said to Job: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?" In the same fashion, we can't fathom the why and God doesn't need to give us an explanation as we wouldn't get it.
Thank you for this video.
Thank-you, Bishop Barron. I am always edified by your homilies and reflections. Recently, I have struggled with the reality of God’s “interruptions”. Our parish was poised to delve deeper in our devotion to the Holy Eucharist. The pandemic has disrupted our plans. “How come, dear Lord?!”
@@pamelahollins6711 Sometimes I wonder if God doesn't want us to get too comfortable in how we worship, so He has events happen that might show us ways we can adjust the way we do things to glorify Him. A church I volunteer with in their ESL program had to do that with the shutdowns here in Canada in March...and we had to learn how to serve God in a different way.
@@JamesRichardWiley Not really when you consider that God is an atemporal being outside of time and space. The laws of our limited reality don't apply
James Richard Wiley ok. It’s clear to me that you have little understanding of these topics by friend.
Let’s discuss the first law of thermodynamics: If the first law of thermodynamics was apposed to a cosmic beginning why is the standard Big Bang model so widely accepted among scientists? Here’s why: Because the first law of thermodynamics is a law of nature and therefore is a physical law which only applies within the arena of space time. It does not apply to the origin of the arena itself.
But you wanted to talk about the laws or thermodynamics so let’s discuss the second one. This tells us that the universe is slowly running out of usable energy. If the universe were eternal in the past, it should have experienced heat death an infinite number of years ago!
Let’s not forget the scientifically proven Borde Guth Vilenkin theorem which states that any universe which has in average, been expanding throughout its history cannot be eternal in the past. Even among scientists, the past eternal universe is a minority view.. and we haven’t even gotten into the countless logical absurdities which would result!
Imagine an infinite bookshelf with half its books painted red and the other half black. Take out all the black books (half) and you have the same amount of books. That’s mathematically absurd, and it’s only the beginning. An infinite amount of grim reapers want to kill Fred, if Fred’s alive at 1:00am then reaper #1 will instantly kill him, if Fred’s alive at 12:30, grim reaper #2 kills him, if Fred is alive at 12:15 grim reaper #3 kills him. An infinite number of grim reapers is trying to kill Fred, each at half the time of the prior. Yet.. no Grim reaper kills Fred. Fred is surely dead, but surely alive. Why can’t these paradoxes happen? Because actual infinites are just ideas in our heads, they don’t and can’t exist.
Meanwhile, there is no real evidence FOR a past eternal universe! Also, why all the empty name calling? You say ‘Bronze Age god’ as if the time in which such an entity revealed itself to humans has anything to do with whether or not it existed.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you reevaluate your position for a more reasonable one. God Bless.
I was thinking about this as well. Why do God let us suffer from a death of a loved one? Why are suffer has to be bound to the suffering or the lost of other one? Why other people has to be involved? Did God make this happened for me or for the deceased? It would be egocentric to believe it was for me, to teach me something or put me in certain path. Does he have a plan for the long run that does not even involved neither of the involved in the suffering?
"Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Thank you Bishop Barron for giving me the understanding that the Lord's ways are not our ways. I look forward to knowing God's ways upon my death.
Thank you, Father, for bringing me to Catholicism
Gustavo De Moraes you need to be a born again Christian catholic will not work that’s religion you need relationship
Gracias querido Padre Robert
The analogy with you and your dog at the vet is brilliant. Thank you.
You encourage me to pray more, confess and receive the holy communion. Thank You Bishop ! Going to church now 👍
The Bishop does have a great way of explaining things. Thank you Mr Bishop for that enlightenment
Let's bring this to the human realm or human understanding, you all seem to be talking high. Okay, I'll concede, his thoughts or purpose may be unknowable or incomprehensible to us, but can he not maintain that unknowable purpose and remove suffering still? He is god right? So he should be able to do that, but why didn't he? I'm not dictating god in what to do here, you might object, I'm just making you aware that it's possible for him to be incomprehensible in his thoughts and ways and yet remove our pain or suffering. Why didn't he?
@@terminusadquem6981 if everything in life was given to you easily, would you strive to make yourself better? Look at communist countries where everyone is given a check whether they work hard or they are lazy. Do they strive for better? In welfare states where the unemployed are paid to stay home, do they strive for better? Without suffering, would you really recognize the life of righteousness and salvation? We have to be challenged in order to strive for better. Suffering makes us work for righteousness and salvation. It tests us. Ensures we understand there is good vs evil. And that we have an ability to overcome. These are the yin and yang, balances of life. The tests. We face and must.overcome with grace and through faith. Coronavirus is such a test today. Some cower in fear and lose faith. Others grow stronger in faith through the pandemic. What are you afraid of? What do you fear and why do you fear pain? Struggle? Death? Why?
@@xavierlaflamme8773 He is a perfect god, no amount of reason or excuse you can give that god couldn't not make it a reason why. He can give things easily and still permit our striving to become better. Paradoxical? No, god is not bound by any, he can, but he didn't, or to make sense of this, in our perspective, simply because there's no such thing as perfect being, and if your claim he is perfect, then he does not exist, as it would contradict in our perspective.
@@terminusadquem6981 perfection life you seek. One of no struggles. Is not here. This realm is Satan's. He is the master of the air. You need to struggle and seek salvation through repentence. Seek God and Jesus. To get to that life of no struggles and perfection, which is heaven. As the Bible said. The Road to Heaven is narrow. Not all will make it. But God, who is perfect, gave you free will and mind. His knowledge through the scriptures. To find that perfection. To get there. We are so afraid to struggle today. People all want to live a life of convenience. No struggles. Everything given. The entitled generation as Trump calls it. But life is filled with struggle for you to find perfection. And that perfect life, should you find God and repent, get salvation, will be in Heaven. Not the fallenworld controlled by Satan.
@@xavierlaflamme8773 No, you are missing the point. I'd do much better If I was in charge of the universe. Your god failed so horribly. I would set the world back to when everything was perfect and there's no so called sin. I can with my omnipotence and omniscience, create that world and maintain it with no problem. But your god, chose to introduce the possibility of sinning, he created tree of knowledge, which is pretty stupid. So ultimately he is the one responsible for this fallen world, he is the one responsible for all our suffering. Our fault, because of free will? I can create free will without sin, impossible? do not limit the most powerful being.
You call that entitlement? If I were god, I would create a world where that would not be called entitlement. Simple.
Life’s Rich Pageant full of happiness and trials.
Very helpful personally Bishop Barron. Thank you 🙏
I remember these words from the Bible "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts."
Trust in the Lord with all your hearts and lean not on your own understanding,acknowledge him in all your ways and he will straighten out your path.Amen
Thank you, Bishop Barron.
Unfortunately, suffering is a part of life. When we suffer, God is teaching us a lesson. When we suffer, we can pray to God to make it go away, or we can ask Him: " What can I learn from this experience, so that it does not happen again?" God loves you but He will test you, He does not want His children to be weak forever, He wants you to learn to be strong. That is God's ultimate love for us. ❤
Yeah, totally especially those that are tied to bed and mother needs to wake up every 2 hours during night to turn her from side to side so she doesnt get open wounds bc she is constantly on one side lying.. such a great lesson and suffering is a gift stuff from her birth.. its obviously some generational sin .. dont you think? /sarcasm off
Please stop with this superstitious nonsense! There is no such thing as a god. Grow up and face reality. You sound childish and ignorant.
Praise to the Lord, i can get what the meaning what God let us suffering? Yes God way and our way is different...in my own life.. thank your Grace. ..so we know how to settle our problems .Amen
Pray for Ukraine
I'm currently taking a Philosophy of Religion course and this topic is incredibly central to the discipline. Thank you for this sermon and for shedding some wisdom on the subject!
Thank you Bishop Barron for this wonderful explanation. God bless you always💖💝🙏
Love from
🇵🇭
I found that in religion all doubt can be laid to rest. Thank you for opening my eyes even further.
This is the best response to that sge old question I've ever heard...
James Richard Wiley You talk about everything bad, but nothing good. God allows cures and treatments for thousands of diseases. God provides us with a justice system to punish the wicked. God allows us to defeat evil regimes like Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Robespierre(cult of reason), American Slavery, and etc. God allows us to have thousands of technological advances. Also on eternal damnation, God damns no one. People damn themselves. Is it the judges fault when he sentences a murderer to life with no parole. Also God allows freewill in the eyes of the Catholics and some Protestant groups. Would you rather have God forcing you to do what you don’t want to do? God forcing you to love him, which is not real love? God also understands that freewill will apply to evil, that’s why he punishes the wicked. Like what a good mother and father would do to a child.
Yup. Leave it to the pros. 🙏🏽❤️🔥
Honestly the dog analogy was much better. For most of the suffering that we question we do so in part because we know we will never understand. I will never understand something like a terrible war, and I know I will never have the capacity to understand. In that sense the dog analogy was much closer and honestly very insightful.
Thank you Bishop. I had the same experience with my dog some year back. I almost came to the same conclusion about the difference between the thinking capacity of a dog and a human as being similar to the ways of God and those of morals like us. It was a joy hearing you had the same experience and using the story to explain how we can never elevate our thinking to that of God.
difference is *all* dogs need their shots
Thank you Bishop Barron, for today's sermon, as usual it was very interesting, and I liked your story about your little dog Tiger . From morning i was waiting to hear your sermon. You are tooooo good in preaching, i wish you were here in India with us. I can never thank you enough for your lovely sermons. May GOD bless you, and keep you safe . Have a nice week. I'll be looking forward for next Sunday's sermon. GOD bless you ➕ ❤
Praise the Lord Jesus Christ 🙏 Mother Mary Pray For Us 🙏Abba Father Bless us and we Adore You 🙏
So wonderfully stated
Great sermon. Towards the end you said god bless you right when I sneezed haha.
i think i'll always be atheist minded, but this man seems genuine and compassionate,
Don't be atheist-minded, be truth minded.
Hi Bishop Barron. Thanks you for this powerful message this Sunday morning here in Brooklyn, NY. I loved your story about Tiger the doggie, and it was not silly at all. Very true. I'm a major animal lover and they often wear their hearts on their sleeves. I believe we were made to do the same as God's creatures, before life and others so often drive that from us. Life is chock full of mystery and heartache, but therein lies the beauty and God's presence. Tricky to navigate that road.
Thanks Bishop Barron for this very insightful sermon ; indeed it sheds a light on one of the ancient ( if not the most ancient) problem of human experience . Nevertheless I would like to play the Devil Advocate ( I am a practicing committed Catholic) : we often ask "Why" in face of major events of our life , but it seems to me that it begs what it assumes : who said there is a " why"? Why this or that person died ? Because deseases are part of the natural world and we are vulnerable to these agents . It seems to me that we assume that if something cause pain , therefore is not "right" or" fair ". We tend to project our wishes and make them an absolute standard of how things ought to be . I think is a fallacious thought because it depicts life as a moral agent. Life is not "fair" or "just" , in fact , life does not care about moral principles... Life is not a deity or a higher consciousness : is rather a network of.process that interacts together . Where do we derive the idea that there is major "Why" to the problem of suffering? I mean within a logical and philosophical framework , not religious . I think this is a good.point for the naturalistic worldview: suffering is a possibility and doesn't necessitate an explanation beyond his own realm . Hope Made myself clear ,God bless you all
Great homily Bishop. My struggle with this topic is always the evil perpetrated on others. Not a surgeon who has to inflict pain for healing but those who inflict pain and suffering for evil purposes.ie murder/rape/ child abuse etc. I always struggle with where is a loving God in those situations...but I think the answer lies somewhere in our free will. There are times when I have struggled with God’s decision to let us choose freely. We make some horrific choices.....Blessings to all the Word on Fire team🙏
Suffering is a Good Teacher! Sometimes that is the only way some of us Learn!
OMG, what a wonderful way for explaining that God is ALWAYS at our side, taking care of us.
Let's bring this to the human realm or human understanding, you all seem to be talking high. Okay, I'll concede, his thoughts or purpose may be unknowable or incomprehensible to us, but can he not maintain that unknowable purpose and remove suffering still? He is god right? So he should be able to do that, but why didn't he? I'm not dictating god in what to do here, you might object, I'm just making you aware that it's possible for him to be incomprehensible in his thoughts and ways and yet remove our pain or suffering. Why didn't he?
I will never forget Tiger. This clarifies so much.
Thank you Bishop!!
we are really greatful for this insight.
God bless you more.
So impressive! What a perfect way of explaining it. Thanks Father Barron. Thank God for these messages.
The story break when you think about god omniscience
The dog experience was a good analogy. On a larger level, while the Holocaust was evil and full of suffering, God brought the State of Israel out that was unimaginable at the time.
Thank you Bishop Barron. Like so many others I wait for your Sunday sermons . It is pure joy to hear them because they are so heartfelt and sincere. In these times. of covid, and civil unrest it means so much to hear peaceful words of encouragement.
I was four when I began to read the Bible. Paradoxically, Isaiah 40 to 55 was my attraction, which includes Isaiah 53, describing the suffering of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I learned it by heart and recited it in our Romanian Baptist church when I was 4 or 5. Very satisfying testimony by bishop Barron. Yet, although I knew all that when I was 4 or 5 and now I am 72 plus, the promises - "Delight in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding and He will give you the desires of your heart" - left me flat & wondering if my learning brought about a "catharsis", better than what Aristotelis showed... Because my flesh - the old man - was not able to undergo any significant change... On the contrary, the initial momentum persisted... In a passage from the Bible, our heart is incredibly deceitful and beyond change... What is the "heart" alluded to in the memory quoted previously? Anyway, thank you, pastor Barron for taking these difficult subjects to expose (tackle). Could you be targeting these in future presentations or sermons? Thank you.
God bless you Bishop Barron
Thank you Bishop Barron for your insight and wisdom.
Thank you Bishop Baron. I'm wrestling with my husband suffering from esophageal cancer. I dont understand but I know ( not feel) Hod has me in His palm
Thank you Father, now I better understand how and why God suffers with us. May God bless you🙏🏻
I need God every day this helps me to be close to my Lord Jesus Thank You My heavenly Father
My husband and I recently went through a period with our son of horrific bullying at school and subsequent multiple suicide attempts and, eventually, a six month residential pyschiatric stay and a long, painful and exhausting climb to acclimate back to home life and reasonable stability. I experienced such a dark night in my relationship with God during that time and even now, I have lost that "God will keep me safe in His love" kind of feeling. Did I doubt His love for me? No, I didn't doubt it. And I know my love for Him is strong enough to keep worshipping Him. But at the same time, I lost my warm fuzzy feelings about our relationship. He is Abba, yes, but He is also something so much MORE than me and my limitations make it feel as if He is suddenly unpredictable. Not sure Im explaining this coherently, but the suffering He's allowed in my life and in the life of my child has definitely changed our relationship and brought it to a different place. My brain says that's a good thing, a spiritually healthy thing. But my heart was happy were we were 🤷....it will catch up sooner or later, but I sure don't like the suffering!
thank Bishop. I am a religous and now i am suffering. your homily helps me very much. Please pray for my vocation. Thank bishop. God bless you.
Beloved Bishop, the difference is trust. Jesus, I trust You.
Super examples of how/why God permits our suffering. Thanks Bishop!
Thank you
Thanks Fr.
'I am never a sufferer except through my own fault.' St Augustine.
Your story reminded me of a sermon I heard while visiting St. Joseph, MO. The priest was at his parents' farm with his dog and went to get the mail. From that walk the dog ended up full of burrs. The priest said he had to remove them all. His dog couldn't understand why he was hurting him. This analogy stuck with me over 10 years.
Love this analogy
Thank you Bishop Barron, God bless you and your ministry!
Beautiful ❤
Man has Free Will, therefore it is inevitable that those same men will be non God like, and administer evil doings.
Thank You for these homilies on the old testment
Beautiful
Beautiful summon, Thank you.
Thank you Bishop!
The best analogy ever! Thanks Bishop
best explanation
I have heard
Thank you, Bishop.
thank for your honesty
Love the sermons, Bishop!
Illuminating. Thank you.
This is an insightful homily, it just made me understand the reason why there are times that we do not understand suffering and the will of God. Thank you
Thank you Bishop Barron.
Word.
I finally understand listening to this special priest if God healed everyone the freedom we have would not be there any more now I understand
There's no consistency. The answers are as many as there are priests in sunday homilies. Falsehood are many, but there's only one truth.