CFS-WB-CH18

St. Paul’s
perspective is
that suffering
plus faith will
lead to virtue
and love, and
ultimately
salvation.
empathy, humility, forgiveness, and compassion, and provides the conditions
for building the Kingdom of God on earth, bringing hope and
the Good News of salvation to the world.
Were it not for suffering, we would not have a reason to move beyond
a self-centered nature. We would be left without the challenges
that call us to courage, effort, commitment, and love. Thus, even
though suffering causes pain, loss, grief, and other negative emotional
states, Jesus did not view it as essentially negative because in the context
of Faith it can lead toward our and others’ salvation.
St. Paul develops this theology of positive suffering in two important
ways. The first concerns the role of suffering in developing natural
virtue: “[W]e rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character
produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3–5). St. Paul’s perspective is
that suffering plus faith will lead to virtue and love — and ultimately salvation.
Virtues like endurance, character, and hope open us to the love
of God, to an increase in trust, and to a deepening of our own capacity
for love.
The second way St. Paul develops this theology of suffering is by
showing us how suffering teaches us to avoid pride in our own strength,
and to instead trust in God’s power:
“And to keep me from being too elated by the
abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me
in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me,
to keep me from being too elated. Three times I
besought the Lord about this, that it should leave
me; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For
the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities;
for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2
Corinthians 12:7–10)
The original Greek work translated here as “elated,” can also be translated
as “proud,” which can help us understand what Paul meant. Paul’s
thorn in the flesh was probably a physical infirmity (many biblical scholars
believe that he had significant problems with his vision). And we see
that the suffering from this infirmity brings him two benefits: It prevents
364 Apologetics I: The Catholic Faith and Science
© Magis Center