The Mystery of Suffering

The three important points about Jesus and suffering teach us how we should act. Obviously we can only act in smaller ways than Jesus but at least we can still try. The first point is Jesus resisted and eliminated suffering. We cannot heal the blind or the sick but we can but we certainly can simply help others with things they need, problems thy have, or with encouragement and positivity. The second point is Jesus rejected suffering as punishment for sin. We can be like Jesus by also not believing that suffering is from a previous sin and those who suffer deserve it. Everyone does good and bad things this does not mean we should go through tragedy because of it. The third point is Jesus trusted a compassionate, present God. This is what we all really need, we need unbreakable faith. Our faith is the connection we have to our God, not the church, not the leaders, not mass, just our faith. Through faith we trust our God just as Jesus did through good times and the bad. One interpretation of suffering came from the Hebrews. They would use the blood of a sacrificed animal to symbolize the life of the person or the community. They would then pour the blood on the alter as a symbol to reunite the life with God. This process and the animal that was sacrificed would represent the people's desire for reconciliation and union with God. The second interpretation was from St. Anselm who worked off of St. Augustine. He said that sin was like if a peasant were to insult a king. So, since sin is an infinite offense against God, the peasant would be in the kings debt forever. And then the peasant or humans can never pay back God.