A God of Love
Our idea of creation and life
The concept of a loving God is hard for many to accept because of the evil, suffering, and pain we see. After all, a loving God would have created a world free of pain, evil, suffering, and death – in other words, a world with the characteristics of what Christians call heaven. In all honesty, 
however, to deny God because one may believe that God could have done a better job building the universe and our world if only he had accepted our model of the way things should be is simply silly. Our goal, and admittedly a difficult one to reach, should be to surrender our idea of how things ought to be and trust Jesus. When we do this, we will find the loving biblical God. To fight or deny him because things aren’t the way you think they ought to be raises stupidity to a new level.
We will consider these issues in:
We address the problem of evil, etc. by recognizing that our concept of time is not God’s. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church points out, God’s creation is on a journey to perfection and he has asked us to help, just as he asked Mary to bear his Son. When we don’t, we impede his will with the disastrous consequences of the evil and suffering we see about us.
The issue of unanswered prayers is addressed by recognizing that God is interested in our eternal salvation. Suffering and our unanswered prayers should be accepted as God’s way (not ours) to help us find God and remain in his presence. We need to trust God, just as Alexandrina da Costa of Balasar did. Her prayers to be relieved of her intense physical suffering were never answered. While the miracle of physical healing never occurred, a far greater miracle took place – a lifetime of being nourished only by the Eucharist – no sustenance of any kind for 13 years. Her faith conquered her suffering and she was clearly brought to the gates of heaven.
The details of Christ’s agony during his passion are given and correlated with the Shroud of Turin so that the reader can see that Christ understands our suffering. This is the suffering of love. When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, he declared with acts that can never be diluted his incredible love for man. He had said that no greater love can there be than to give one’s life for another. And that’s what he did.
Why did Jesus have to Suffer and Die?
When Jesus suffered and died the way he did, he eliminated all doubts about his divinity. There can be no certainty about his resurrection if there is uncertainty about his death – and the cross removes all uncertainty. A sacrifice is intended to bring us closer to God, and that’s what Jesus’ sacrifice did. He suffered and died not because God needed a sacrifice, but because we did.
Hell: A Loving God and Eternal Punishment?
The concept of a loving God permitting the very people he had created to spend an eternity in agony and punishment flies in the face of logic. We address the problem of an eternal hell by first noting that, with one key exception, there is no single Christian doctrine regarding the concept of hell and who gets to go there. But whatever hell is, a fundamental Christian teaching is that a place or state of eternal punishment is reserved for those who with full knowledge deliberately and with malice reject Jesus. What about just regular nonbelievers (atheists and agnostics)? Opinions vary. Perhaps they will suffer the fate they would have expected in their lives – eternal death. What about others who never had the opportunity to know Jesus? We can’t judge but must rely upon the mercy of Jesus. He understands us, our problems, and issues. That’s what his life, teachings, death, and resurrection tell us. He will judge each of us with love.
Some websites and references
Last modified August 12, 2019