Why does God allow Pain and Suffering? In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, Amen. Today my beloved we discuss a question
copticorthodoxanswers.org
Why does God allow Pain and Suffering?
St John Chrysostom says “where man leads, creation will follow…” In this very sense all of creation was now subject to corruption and chaos because of that is where man lead it. And for this very reason, because of the fall of mankind and the fall of all creation, we now find ourselves in a state where we suffer pain and evil both morally from the ungodly choices of others, as well as from the chaos that was introduced into the natural world.
That being said, we must now turn our attention to what God does in light of all this evil, this pain, this suffering. Some may simply ask, why doesn’t God turn back time and stop the fall, or better yet why not simply prevent people from making horrible choices that will cause suffering on others… To ask this question is to demonstrate that we still do not understand God’s great gift of free will. If God interferes with our Free Will, then we are not free at all. And if He were to remove our freedom, then He does not love us and He becomes something that is contrary to His nature. All of these things are impossible for God for He will not ever go against all that He is. So what option remains? If He cannot forcibly remove evil from our hearts and in the process prevent pain and suffering, then what He does is to transform pain and suffering! He takes something that was the cause of corruption and evil, and He transfigures it into a path that can lead to holiness, salvation, and glory. And He does this by allowing Himself to be intimately acquainted with the pain and suffering of His creation.
Now some may argue that it is impossible for God to suffer and to experience evil and pain. And this is where the Christian faith is unlike any other. Our God came down, humbled Himself fully and took on our form in order to do for us what we proved incapable of doing ourselves. Therefore, boldly does the Christian tell everyone that my God, who was incarnate for me and for my salvation, suffered in the flesh, experienced pain and sorrow in the flesh, died in the flesh, and He also rose from the dead and ascended into the heavens in all glory IN THE FLESH! In doing so, He transformed the path of punishment, into a path of salvation. For this reason, St Paul explains that truly, “…if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:17-18)
St. Innocent of Alaska Orthodox Monastery of the Moscow Patriarchal Parishes located in Redford, MI
stinnocentmonastery.org
The Transfiguration of Christ:
This is the one and only time during His earthly life that Jesus’ Divinity was fully revealed and made manifest. His entire Body was bathed in Divine Glory affirming that He is both fully God and fully Man — the ‘God-Man.’ This Theophany on Mount Tabor also foreshadowed the Glory of Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension that were to follow shortly, and thus the fulfillment of the very purpose of the Incarnation — to restore fallen humanity and all creation to their original goodness and glory as originally created by the Holy Trinity through the Logos/Word. And this is the vision of Christ’s Transfiguration, which is precisely the invisible spiritual reality made visible in authentic Orthodox icons, and apprehended by us while yet on earth.