Quotes about Suffering

We enter this world with birth pains and we leave with similar pains of death.

But if he had come down from the Cross, he would have made it impossible for them to believe in him, for he would have substituted sight for faith. That is why he does not take us down from our crosses: so that we do not substitute feelings and experiences for faith. He wants the very best for us, the strongest and most precious gift, and that is faith.

That's what's so striking about the title of Kushner's book: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. How is that fair? Well, the answer to that is that there are no good people.

Love suffers far more for the pains of the beloved than for its own pains.

That freedom is lost in Hell.

Love is strengthened and perfected by suffering. Couples who have had only ease lack depth. True love needs to suffer. "The course of true love never did run smooth." Kindness—mere kindness—cannot tolerate suffering. Love can.

The transformation of Christ's bodily scars into badges of glory shows us what happens, even in this life, to our souls when we lovingly and trustingly offer our sufferings to Christ and unite them to His. He turns "deformity" into "dignity".

Furthermore, the most popular modern answer to the question of what it means to be a good person is to be kind. Do not make other people suffer. If it doesn't hurt anyone, it's O.K. By this standard, God is not good it he lets us suffer. But by ancient standards, God might be good even though he lets us suffer, if he does it for the sake of the greater end of happiness, perfection of life and character and soul, that is, self.

Expect the world to be Heaven, and it will feel like Hell. Expect it to be Purgatory, and it will feel like Heaven. The two most salient facts about Purgatory are pain and hope, suffering and meaning.

No happiness on earth can be deeper than the happiness that comes from our willing and active submission to God's will even when he wills suffering.

Suffering together builds togetherness, and if togetherness is more important for us and for our joy than freedom from suffering is, then God is good to allow this suffering.

There is nothing worse… no punishment greater than to have known God and no longer to know him.