On Human Suffering

Lately I've been encountering quite frequently the question of theodicy: if God is all powerful, all knowing, and good, then why is there so much suffering in the world? How could God let His people of Israel- Jews- suffer in the Holocaust possibly the worst pain in human history? How can God take just-born babies or beloved innocent children from their good and loving parents, left to mourn their losses for the rest of their lives?

Why pain?

Does God feel pain? Does He need for us to feel it in order to understand what He feels so He can better connect with us, be needed by us, and have us grow more like Him?

Do we need to feel pain in order to grow more wise and humble, to know what happiness is, or--the most feared of all possibilities--to be disciplined?

With each possible explanation of why we suffer, there implies a different way of viewing God. If we feel pain because of our sin, we see Him as disciplinary. If He lets us feel pain because He wants us to sympathize with His pain, we might see Him as incomplete or needy.

To know why we suffer, we must know who God is, and this is impossible to know or ever conceive. I don't claim to know who God is, but I do know that He wants us to love each other, and in doing so, He can better love us. And loving us is all He wants to do-- He doesn't need our love. The meaning of life is not to love God, but to be loved by God through each other.

Suffering, then, is perhaps God's way of letting us reach out to one another in the most humble and selfless way possible. Being with someone in his or her suffering- taking part of that burden onto one's own shoulders in empathy- is one of the greatest things we can do for a fellow human being. Truly feeling someone else's pain- a very small part of it (for that is all we are able to feel, if any)- connects us to our human community in a way like no other. Of course, we all share in each others' emotions on a daily basis. But sharing in someone's happiness, for example (or trying to do so- we regularly fail at this), often leads to jealousy or resentment. It is so hard for one human being to feel genuinely happy for another's good fortune. One often winds up jealous of the other's fortune or wishing to somehow take part in it. I believe, then, that in selflessly sharing someone's suffering, there exists no trace of pride or jealousy. And perhaps, at least in a small way, that is one reason why He lets us suffer.

God needs us to need each other.