A Painful Corollary

After posting last night, I continued thinking about the problem when my teacher Jack reminded me that he had written a fabulous book on the subject. Not having a copy on hand, I went to the trusty internet and found exactly what I needed. As usual, my thoughts on the subject were highly influenced by Jack's book, even though I didn't realize it at the time. Refreshing my memory also helped refresh my certainty of his answers.

Since I can't possibly recount them as well as he does, I highly recommend that anyone reading this and interested check out his book on the subject, The Problem of Pain.

These things though, I would add to my previous thoughts on the subject. Going through suffering, or pain, is not at all the same as writing about it. While the two influence each other, I would in no way presume that suffering people need only to reason their way through it.

That said, the solution lies in our definition of goodness. I approached this and couldn't articulate it in the last post. As Jack says, it is not a difference like black from white, but like a perfect circle from a child's first attempt at drawing a circle. The one of course perfect, and the other approximating it, but very irregularly. While we think of goodness as mostly kindness, true goodness is composed of all the virtues and seeks to perfect the object of its love, where kindness would simply seek to spare the object of its affection any pain.

With that in mind, we can see how pain can serve a refining purpose. It teaches us that things will happen to us without our consent. It cannot be ignored. It shows us our weakness and need for rescue. It forces a rebel to submit. Thus pain can be viewed as a good thing. The result of force applied justly and beneficently to perfect what is imperfect by its own perversion.

Again, I don't think this fully explains all forms of suffering. In particular the more brutal and horrific kinds. But if we can accept that self must be abdicated (this is the perfecting I mention) and suffering is the tool to effect it, this may take us far enough down the road to trust that it will take us home even if we can't yet see the end of it.

Thanks to Jack, as always, my ready teacher. Your clarity is a gift from God. As my friend Brother Lawrence says, we ought not to be surprised at the badness in such a wicked world, but rather surprised that there is not more of it. This is echoed by one of the most thoughful modern bands I have heard. Flyleaf says, don't be surprised that people die, be surprised you're still alive.