We must always remain aware of the immeasurable distance between our limited vision, which cannot grasp more than a tiny detail of the whole, and the all-comprehensive mind of God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord” (Isa. 55:8). Above all, too, we must think of the entirely new meaning that all suffering has acquired through Christ’s death on the cross. The suffering of Our Lord purified the world; His sorrowful love of atonement redeemed it.

Whether the suffering that has fallen to our lot is meant to provide us with an occasion to atone for our sins here on earth; to try us and detach us completely; or again—a costly privilege—to make us atone for the sins of others, or to allow us to participate in Christ’s suffering on the cross, so as to become more like Him; in all suffering we are touched by the merciful hand of God, who is infinite love.

Christian confidence in God implies an integral response to Revelation and therefore an appreciation of the meaning that Christ has conferred upon suffering. Even though his heart be pierced by sorrow, even though he may see nothing but darkness around him, the Christian must still implicitly believe in the supernatural meaning of suffering illumined with the love of God. And so, though we may and should pray for the averting of future evils, to every visitation of sorrow which God has inflicted upon us we must respond with the words Fiat voluntas Dei, (“God’s will be done”); more, we must also see in it the love of God, which purposes to guide us through our sorrows to eternal happiness, to the joy whereof the Lord says, “But your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).

Yet we must oppose evil

However, we hear the objection: “Yes, this may hold inasmuch as sorrows and sufferings alone are concerned. But what if we are to witness the frequent triumphs on earth of willful malice; the reverses not seldom suffered for the cause of God by the soldiers of Christ; the dangers that threaten so many souls owing to the successes of the foes of God? Are we still to interpret these incomprehensible, these strictly and intrinsically bad things as an outcome of God’s love?”