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CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Theologically, Jesus statement on the call of true discipleship made it very clear and explicit

that we should expect some trials and sufferings and that these were parts of discipleship. The

nature of our sufferings mirrored Jesus suffering in his daily life. His passion, death and

resurrection is the ultimate. Human suffering has a universal character is the world. The rich

and the poor alike and indeed, all humans suffer.

On the contrary, within our contemporary world today Christs suffering in which we all

participate fully by virtue of our creation is seen from a negative perspective as Gods

punishment, humiliation and annihilation. Thus, a famous Pauline and Markan theology of

suffering for the sake of Christ is gradually diminishing (cf Mark 13 :1-13). Therefore, it is

characteristically rejected and vehemently opposed at all costs. But the vigorous aversion

neither eliminates nor revolves the problem of human suffering. Eventually, the victim might

suffer more without benefiting meaningfully from the difficult experience. Suffering is held by

many as that which is more physical and has lost sight of other dimensions such as

psychological, spiritual and emotional.

The aim or essential target of the project is to attempt a solution on the above mentioned

problem. Suffering for the sake of Christ should be viewed from a positive position. Gods

salvific will is not identical with his metaphysical necessary goodness and holiness nor

something strictly derived from this. It is not a metaphysically attribute of God which can be

established every where and always, but a divine attitude in the nature of an event which has to

be experienced and proclaimed in history. This free attitude of God is ultimately directed

toward the salvation of souls and mankind. Salvation according to the psalmist is deliverance

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from mortal danger, healing of sickness, liberation from captivity, ransom from slavery, victory

in battle and peace after political negotiations (Psalms 7:11; 18:28:28;22:22;34:7).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Man lives is the world in which sufferings of different kinds and degrees are inevitable. Rather

than being imaginary, it is an existential problem which has become a distinctive mark of

earthly life of all peoples, times and cultures. But then man has never fully grasped its meaning.

Thus, man is often confused by its various forms of manifestations.

Though Christ urged us to carry our cross and follow him all the days of our sojourn on this

earth, people often question why me? Man still views suffering in a negative perspective. One

again is tempted to ask what really brings suffering? Why must man suffer? Hardly do people

understand suffering as a way of following Christ. Can we say there is something good in

suffering? How do our contemporary Christians view suffering? These are some of the

problems that we shall be looking at in this project.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Human suffering is an existential phenomenon which is as old as man himself. It is present at

all times and ages and indeed wherever human beings are found. Thus, the purpose of this work

is to unravel the real understanding of human suffering in Christianity and to link it up with that

of Christ which will pave way for the human quest for the salvation. This project will show us

that suffering is part and parcel of humanity.

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1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This work is of great importance to Christians because, it explores how Christians should look

at suffering, and also accept it with faith whenever it comes because our master Jesus himself is

our model. This work will also correct the wrong impression people have on suffering so that

they will be able to carry their crosses daily and follow Christ.

1.5 THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This work primordially concerns itself with Christians doctrines on human suffering. We shall

be looking at suffering in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Islamic religion. Attention

too will be drawn to some Fathers of the Church who said something about human suffering.

We shall also not forget the Churchs teaching and especially 2nd Vaticans view on suffering.

1.6 METHODOLOGY

We shall implore the use of library research for gathering of information. Our interpretations

also shall be based on comparative and also theological hermeneutical methods.

1.7 DIVISION OF THE WORK

This work is divided into five chapters. Chapter one centers on general introduction as chapter

two reviews some related literatures on the subject matter. Chapter three focuses on the various

theological exposition of human suffering, while chapter four dwells on the hermeneutics of

human suffering in the light of Pauline theology. The last and the concluding chapter is on

summary and conclusion during which we shall be looking at the limitations, contribution to

knowledge and recommendations for further research.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

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The Pauline theology and spirituality of suffering and those of the New Testament writers

forms the bedrock of the later search for a better way of responding to the reality of human

suffering. Even though the definitive experience of Gods revelation is said to have ended with

the death of the last apostle of Jesus. However, that did not as a matter of fact, bring to a

close humanitys endeavour to probe into the meaning of life enigma. The New Testament

setting and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ provides response to the reality of suffering in the

world. Therefore, more and more attempts have been made in an effort to find out new

intellectual and theological insight to deepen mans response to the reality of suffering and evil

in the world.

Thus, the church has produced Fathers whose theological reflections would help to deepen our

theological search on human suffering.

The phenomenon of human suffering is as old as humanity itself. Christians and non Christians,

the rich and the poor alike and indeed, the entire humanity undergoes some sufferings.

Suffering has a universal character since it is the issue that bothers humanity everywhere. And

since suffering is experienced where ever by the humanity, there are various views concerning

this issue. People talk about it irrespective of their religious affiliation, tribes or sex. Everybody

knows that suffering exists and what it is, that is to say that all people know the answer to the

what question of the meaning of suffering. To some people, suffering is an outcome of sin.

Those people in this category view creation as perfect (Gen 1) and that distortion in creation

arose from mans disobedience to his creator.

It is therefore the intention of this chapter to expose various views about suffering as expressed

by different individuals at different times. But before then, we shall first of all look at suffering

in the Old Testament, New Testament and the Islamic religion.

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This reliance on God seems secular in origin but it is worthwhile to note that the Lord of

Hosts also takes a prominent position in the religious celebrations. The connection between

secular and religious power is already visible in Egypt where Moses pronounced the

punishment of the liberating God, while Aaron the priest performed the ritual action through

which the punishment came upon the land (Ex 7:17-18) on the journey through the desert,

whenever the Ark of the Covenant was set out, Moses would pray. Arise, o Lord, that your

enemies may be scattered, and those who heard may flee before you (Ex. 10:35, Ps 68:1).

Deliverance and battle were inseparably connected. Both battle and deliverance are portrayed

in the worship of the one God who won the battle and brought freedom. According to Caroll

Stublmueller:

Liturgical celebrations are an essential

company in the Old Testament understanding

of suffering. Many religious celebrations,

particularly the Passover were a re-living of

the liberating actions of Yahweh.

Through the prophet, Yahweh indicates how deep the union between him and his people has

grown because of their suffering and hope. In their own tribulations the Israelites hear the voice

of the suffering God. Stublemueller says:

If Israel sensed this blending of voicessuffering, her own and Gods then a mystic

aura must have pervaded the suffering voices

of contemplative prayers are merging, with

voices of suffering.

Although the community is suffering, the emphasis begins to shift to individual persons who

are caught up in this condition.

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The Old Testament considers the deeper cause of human suffering to be any disturbance of the

relationship between God and man through sin, and the anger of God thereby incurred.

Thus, pain in child bearing, various kinds of troubles, hardships and suffering sickness and

death came into the world as a result of the first sin (Gen 3:16-19; Wis 2:24).

Summarily, the Old Testament revelation on the meaning of suffering reaches its climax in

Isaiah 53 of the suffering servant of God. Meanwhile, we can say that the Old Testament

achieves a rational explanation of suffering which goes beyond all the futile attempts for other

earlier scholars and religions to find some meaning in suffering. According to Martin Udejiofor

(2006:58), suffering therefore becomes a means of atonement that obliterates sin in the sight

of God. In this way God gives the devout man the opportunity of atoning for his sins in this

world, so that in the world to come, life may be preserved from punishment.

In the Old Testament there is that close connection between suffering and the Yahwehs

relationship and his chosen people. Therefore, it is not surprising that the role of suffering as it

existed in the Old Testament. Hence, the New Testament era was a moment in the expectancy

of Israel for final deliverance by the Messiah. Thus God came down to his people as deliverer,

consequently, pain and suffering which has entered into their religions became a holy ground

for human and divine touch. Similarly, Christianity, which comes from an ancestry that

incorporates misery and redemption, submission and slavery and liberation, contains within

itself these same elements.

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For the New Testament, human suffering has still greater significance than for Judaism, no

wonder, almost all the books of the New Testament speak of suffering, thus, Udejiofor

(2006:61) remarks:

Like the Israel of Old Testament, the New

Testament inquires into the why of the

human suffering. However, it never offered a

definitive answer in search for the why? Of

suffering.

What then in the light of the New Testament is or are the causes of pain, misery and human

pain. The voice of Jesus echoes timelessly to illuminate our hearts and to better our

understanding of the mystery of suffering. On one occasion Jesus designates the power of Satan

as the origin of suffering (cf Lk 13:10-17).

Suffering, in the light of the New Testament also comes as punishment for ill behavior. As in

the case where Christ warns his disciples. you will all come to the same fate and unless you

repent (Lk. 13:1-6). In this instance we can see that the suffering of one person can stand as a

warning for others. On the other hand, the New Testament in general denies the prevailing

doctrine of the Pharisees, that all suffering is retribution. To understand the attitude of Jesus

and of the New Testament towards suffering, we must take as our starting point the very fact of

his own suffering as the entire messianic work consisted of suffering in manifold form.

The crucified Jesus is the lamb of God who by his suffering takes away the sin of the world.

According to the late supreme pontiff Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter, February, 1984:

Christ introduces us into the very heart of

Gods salvific work. He also expresses the

very essence of Christian soteriology, that isthe theology of salvation,

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salvation means liberation from evil and for

this reason closely bound up with the problem

of suffering.

The New Testament reveals the Lamb of God in the song of the suffering servant who freely

chooses to make himself a sin offering for the people. He heals others through his innocent

suffering and brings about justice and peace through the blood of his cross, by his salvific

work, the son of God liberates man from sin and death, he blots out from human history the

dominion of sin, under the influence of evil spirit beginning with the original sin. He also takes

away the dominion of death.

On the other hand, Islamic view of suffering may be categorized broadly into two headings.

The first is to suffer as a result of punishment for sin; the second type of suffering is a test or

trial. The Quran repeatedly stresses that all who do evil will be punished for their actions in

this world and the next. This doctrine is associated with an emphasis on the perfect justice of

Allah which is to be vindicated on the judgment day, when the evil doers will be thrown into

the fires of hell (cf Surah 52).

Thus, the punishment of a sinner through suffering may serve as an educational function

namely, to show unbelievers the truth of Allahs word, and reveals a central precept of Islam on

the subject of suffering. It is also a test of mans belief. This concept is based upon the belief

that the true Muslim stands by his/her faith despite the suffering or persecution.

Therefore, the active response to suffering is grounded in the Islamic belief that man is the

cause of his own suffering. Islam considers good those things that got rid of the world of

suffering. The man who helps others is a righteous man. The true believer is revealed by his

good works as well as by his acceptance of suffering.

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Many writers over the ages have expressed their opinions about suffering. Some of them

offered the phenomenon a negative view because it brings pains and anxiety to people, some at

the same time gave the concept a positive commutation base on the fact that it is a symbol of

love, glory and success. The early Christian missionaries associated suffering with being a

follower of Christ. Thus, according to the apostle Paul, it involves both a work to be done and

suffering to be borne if the body of Christ is to be built up and the life of Christ to be diffused

to new monster (John Hick, 1973:35). Paul expressed that his suffering is of great value to the

entire being of Christ through encouragement (2 Cor. 1:4-7).

The second letter to the Corinthians expresses another value that Paul finds in personal

suffering; that is, it allows the power of God to become manifest (2Cor. 12:6-10; 13:4). Also

paging further to 2Cor 12:6-10, Paul speaks of his thorn in the flesh. The values of the

suffering are seen in that it forced him to humility and surrender before the creator.

Elaborating on suffering, some of St. Peters words in one of his letters come into play:

None of you should ever deserve to suffer for

being a murderer, a thief, a criminal or an

informer; but if any one of you should suffer

for being a Christians, then there must be no

shame but thanksgiving to God for bearing

his name. (1Pet 4:15-16).

Suffering as it were, denies ones of happiness and brings him to almost a shameful state in life.

Here ones faith has to come in, to hand over to God every situation. Peter, as a disciple of

Christ was speaking from his personal experience, imploring the followers of Jesus to remain

steadfast. When one understands that God is in control, he sees his suffering as glory. This

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could explain why some Christians who suffered martyrdom where rejoicing as they were been

tortured to death.

St Ireanaeus (120 200 AD), a native of Asia Minor and missionary in Gaul, both himself and

Augustine have some similarities in their doctrines precisely that of suffering. Both rejected the

dualistic solution and looked to God as the alternate source of all realities. However, while

Augustine looks at the cause of suffering as mans fall from grace as a result of his freewill, for

Ireaneaus, sin is not a kind of disaster instead it is a painful challenging call to grow towards an

authentic human holiness.

According to him, the encounter with good and evil is part of the growing process of human

consciousness. In his view sin does not ruin human condition instead it delays it. Thus, the

journey towards moral and personal maturity was delayed by mans fall. However, that fall and

it effect has been renewed by the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ.

The classical theories provide that human suffering is the problem of misuse of human

freedom. We see that the problem of suffering is not an abstract reality but can be solved by

reasoning and understanding. Humanity undergoes suffering and answers about suffering will

not provide any solution. According to Greshake as quoted in Martrin Udejiofor (2006:121),

suffering is not a problem to be integrated into life. However, it is really a search for

understanding that can offer and direct for a responsible response to suffering formulated.

St. Augustine (353-430) at the age of forty three began to write his biography, which is the

story of his search for the truth ad personal struggle with evil.

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According to Augustine who thought at that moment, was under the influence of the

Manichean dualistic theory evil is the absence of the good. He held that, matter is evil and do

not the creation loving good God. The Manicheans held that the world embodies two opposing

powers of good and the evil power causes all the evil in the universe. Following this trend of

thought, for Augustine every thing that is positive is good and that it becomes evil when it

ceases to be what it should be.

For him, God created man to be free. He gave man the dignity of freedom so that his response

more than being controlled by God would instead be a loving response to God. However man

misused his freedom and chose evil instead of good and since sin has devastating repercussions

for man, so like a destructive tidal wave, sin flowed over in variety of painful consequences.

Augustine thus, says that because of sins, humanity began to bear the burden work, disease,

weakness, fragility and widespread of suffering. However Augustine posits that God does not

abandon man in his suffering and miseries.

But Augustine saw in suffering the power and goodness of God for he says, suffering here must

be taken to mean both mercy and physical evil. However, Augustines invocation to the divine

omnipotence reconciles our hope and faith in God while we ask the question why suffering.

He places the answer thus, that Gods omnipotence does not pose problem with human

suffering for him one of the marks of omnipotence is that it can extract good from evil.

Similarly, in Thomas Aquinas is the conviction that every nature or being fully realized or in

potency towards realization, is basically good. This goes along way affirming Augustines

position, for he says evil is the privation of good which chiefly and of itself consists in

perfection and act.

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As for whether God is the cause of suffering, Aquinas holds that the omnipotence is goodness

himself and that in him there is no defect of evil since he is all good. Therefore, it follows then

that in Aquinas opinion, suffering is as a result of mans sin. And God sends it to man because

of defect nature, as a result of his fall from grace human nature became wounded. Thus, we are

born into a broken world of suffering. But God overcomes evil and makes suffering redemptive

in the life, death, and resurrection Jesus, the son of God and the suffering servant.

Magnate, (1992), in his view does not make a distinction between human nature and human

experience when commenting on suffering. Man is not free from suffering. It is part and parcel

of humanity. To demonstrate this, Magnate embarked on enumerating experiences of suffering

of men of old in the Old Testament and New Testament. For him, human being is prone to

suffering. This stern from the fact that man derailed from Gods injunction in the Garden of

Eden and this made suffering come in. According to Magnate, Jesus Christ is the example per

excellence as far as suffering is concerned. He adulates that:

Jesus certainly suffered for the benefit and

salvation of others like the suffering servant.

He does not eliminate suffering and death, but

he assumes them. In so doing, he manifests

the great love of God for humanity (Magnate,

1992:132).

The suffering of Christ as the innocent one should be a panacea for the quest for salvation. The

suffering of Christ also points to the fact that mortal men can suffer and for man it is a cross

when it comes as a result of faith in Christ. Human beings are so soaked up with sufferings of

various kinds so much so that they begin questioning the existence of God. As if to justify their

stand, one of the complainants has this to put across:

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I would rather face life without God than to

live with the thought that God is so

insensitive to human experience thatimmeasurable pain and suffering are divinely

prescribed treatments for evil in the hearts

and actions of five years old girls (Duke,

2004:40).

We notice from the foregoing quotation that there are people who are not at home with

sufferings and tend to doubt Gods existence. Such people most at tines preferred been dead,

some attempt suicide hence they do not see the value of life any longer.

Karl Rahner, (1965), sees suffering as the way in which the entire world informs the human

mind and the spirit (passio in St. Thomas). This suffering always spontaneously exposes itself

to the world and the world cannot do otherwise rather, it dire to embrace it. The experience of

this exposure of the human mind to the world causes man to experience a demitting

contradiction, both within and without. This contradiction occurs when the relationship has

been antecedently turned against God and salvation.

Fitcher, (1981) offered some pieces of advice to Christians to embrace sufferings whenever

they come. According to him, suffering should be viewed as something positive, something

that brings joy; they should try to cheerfully offer it to God since Christianity offers the hope of

gladness through suffering when Christ is revealed. Fitcher so encourages suffering because

since Christ who is God suffered for us voluntarily, we too should be happy to embrace it in the

name of Christ. He maintains that suffering was no longer unjust and all pain was necessary

(Fitcher, 1981:46).

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Jungen Moltmann maintains that there is a call for human solidarity in the face of suffering,

confident that if we are made in Gods image, then God himself enters into and shares palpably

all human suffering. According to him and in a special way, those who suffer injustice remain

indelibly etched in Gods memory and ought to be in scribed in human consciousness. He

believes that in the memory of Jesus Christ there is hope even in the face of inexplicable human

suffering. He concluded that the meaning of suffering defies simplistic categories.

In contrast to the above argument, Youggi Cho champions the opinion that human suffering is

punishment for sins. Youggi Cho himself as a person suffered recurrent sickness all through his

life. When he talks like this, he is coming from his own personal experience. According to him,

suffering fundamentally arises from ones disobedience to God. In his view, he says:

Sickness, death, the curse and pain were all brought about because man rebelled against God

and developed a companionship with devil. Man refused the calling, exhortation and love of

God and did not respond to him. So God allowed man to go his way as one who was deserted

(Youggi Cho, 1985:34).

He frees God from any blame and locates the moral humanity at the center of cause and origin

of suffering. One will find interesting to observe that, a similar viewpoint on suffering is

maintained among traditional Africans. According to Ekechukwu E. 1982:6, though some

sufferings may be attributed to human carelessness, it should not be overlooked that to talk of

suffering is to talk of the shear bloody agonies of existence of which all men are aware and of

which most have direct experience. Individual and collective experience of suffering is

intimately linked with Igbo morality. Taking the Igbo culture as an example and of course

where the author comes from, he believes that suffering among the Igbos is morally

determined, and therefore a punishment for sins.

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Another scholar that accepted the fact that suffering is universal and part of human existence is

Cornelius Van der Poel (1999). He maintains:

Human life is a gift received from God for

the purpose of manifesting Gods love.

Human creative development includes

suffering and struggle, but ultimately, there is

a fulfillment on God (Van der Poel,

1999:98).

Human beings by implication cannot be free from the suffering. Suffering must come. It is part

and parcel of human existence. Reaffirming his ground he further postulates:

Suffering is such a deeply personal reality

and general experience that we cannot

realistically imagine human existence

without some form of it (Van der Poel,

1999:97).

When suffering becomes so intensed that the victim can no longer bear, the sufferer tends to

ask question that sometimes affects his faith. With the exit of time Van der Poel affirms that

suffering acts as a catalyst for personal choice that bounds humanity to God. The chosen people

come to know God better, love him and draw closer to him because of their wars and prolonged

suffering. According to him God does not will humanity to suffer but to embrace it as a way of

life that renders service to him.

In congruence with Van der poel, Celestine Umeh also views suffering as a mystery. In one of

his books The human suffering, Umeh maintains that mystery is the most appropriate term

for the description of suffering. For him, he refers to mystery in this regard as What cannot be

fully grasped by human comprehension or less strictly to whatever resists or defies

explanation (2006:7-18). Umeh calls human suffering a mystery because of its wide, varied

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and multidimensional nature which defies human explanation. As a mystery, Umeh shows that

the magnitude of human suffering cannot be measured by the human mental capacity. He

further reiterates that human beings should rather bow in faith before it as a mystery while they

continue to search for the proper ways of understanding it. The above conception of suffering

as a mystery and a phenomenon related to faith, though may be religiously valuable, is not

helpful in human against suffering useless. For how can you alleviate suffering or end it if it is

inexplicable? Except by mystery the author means a phenomenon that is fully known (which is

not the case here); the above notion of suffering is intellectually retardatory towards the human

effort in understanding and building a suffering free-society.

With regards suffering, another scholar so pertinent to mention is James Cone (1975). For Cone

the reality of suffering challenges the affirmation that God is freeing those held down from

human captivity. If God is unlimited both in power and in goodness, as the Christian faith

claims, why does he not destroy the powers of evil through the establishment of divine

righteousness? If God is the liberator of the sufferer who freed Israelites from the slavery in

Egypt, the God also who heals the sick, and the God who is ever present in our midst, why are

the black people still living in financial and economic as well as political bondage to determine

their historical destiny? (Cone, 1975:163).

Notwithstanding, John Hick is the book entitled the mystery of suffering and death has this

to say:

To relate the sad facts of human misery to the

problem of theodicy, we have to ask ourselves

whether a world from which suffering was

excluded would serve the divine purpose of

soul-making. Having been created through

the long evolutionary process as a personal

creature made in the image of God, wouldman be able to grow without suffering

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towards the finite Like of God? (Michael,

1973:25).

Hick further stresses that so far as human nature is concerned, the question concerns mans

liability to bring suffering upon his fellows by his own selfish, greed, cruelty and lovelessness

(Michael, 1973: 25). He maintains that in order for man to be endowed with the freedom in

relation to God, it is essential that he comes to his creator in uncompelled faith and love; man

must be initially put an end epistemic distance from the creator. And this according to him

entails his immersion in an apparently autonomous environment which presents itself to him, as

if there were no God.

In the view of Fyodor Doestoevsky, people suffer for their sins. His understanding of suffering

comes with the experience he confronted from what he observed from how children suffer.

According to his viewpoint, when children are undergoing some sufferings, it is as a result of

the sins of their parents. He says:

If they too, must suffer horribly on earth,

they must suffer for their fathers, they must

be punished for their fathers, who have eaten

the apple, but that reasoning is of the other

world and is incomprehensible for the heart

of man here on earth, an innocent must not

suffer for anothers sins and especially such

innocent.

His view aims at exemplifying human suffering as deliberately inflicted by men themselves. He

is understood as postulating that mans wickedness which led to suffering explains his

temptation to refuse the heaven. Fulton Sheen (1987) appears pessimistic about suffering

when he makes allusion to Christ as suffering innocent though he was, had to undergo it for the

betterment of humanity. Sheen further reinstates that, man in his own way always seeks to

comprehend the why question. The death of Christ on the cross for Sheen is something worth

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emulating because he willingly accepted and endured it. Sheen offers us a theological

implication of the symbol of the cross especially what the bar on which he was nailed signifies.

In his view point, the horizontal bar signifies death while the vertical bar signifies life. The

crossing of both the horizontal bar and vertical bar signifies the contradiction in human

experience; life and death, joy and sorrow, laughter and tears pleasure and pain. He adds that

to overcome evil one must suffer unjustly (p. 39).

One of the leaders of the Church, Pope Leo XIII (1884) has this to say that, human suffering

was said to have originated from the garden of Eden when the devil deceived Adam and Eve

and they fell. And since that time till date, man has the capacity of falling and falling again. He

further stresses that the race of man after its miserable fall from God, the creator and the giver

of heavenly gifts, through the devil separated into two diverse and opposite parts. Following

from the Popes argument, he is proposing the devil to be responsible for the suffering in the

world. The ulterior basis of human suffering could somehow be attributed to the direct or

indirect activities of the evil spirits. By always tempting man, the devil has in mind that man

turns away from the creator, he makes sure that man loses his target of following his creator.

And when man deviates from his creator he suffers as it were.

Pope John Paul II (1984) on the similar note observes that suffering is particularly essential to

the nature of man. And as such, man needs to go beyond himself to grasp this reality. Making

allusion to the Old Testament, the Pope maintains:

Man suffers on account of evil, which is a

certain lack, limitation or distortion of good.

We could say that man suffers because he

does not share, from which in a certain sense

is out of or of which he has deprived himself(John Paul II 1986:6).

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In the view of the supreme pontiff, he limits the cause of suffering to the individual sufferer. He

then shifted from the individual standpoint that refuses to share his good and takes a Christian

dimension to the meaning of suffering. On this, suffering is not just the absence of the good

otherwise there will be a big question against the suffering of the innocent Job and that of

Jesus. The Pope further urges those suffering to embrace it with happiness and see themselves

as sharing in the redemptive work of Christ. Agreeing with this view, Evelyn (1998) says that

suffering accepted in the spirit of Christ is acceptance of his redemptive power.

The call of the church to oppose injustice and operation reached its climax in the teachings of

the Vatican 11 council, especially in Gaudium et spes which at the beginning says:

The joy and hope, that grief and anguish of

the people of our age especially of those who

are poor or afflicted in anyway, are the joy

and hope, the grief and the anguish of the

followers of Christ as well.

The Christian involvement here is a holistic one and participation in the mystery of those who

suffer. This world-involving Christian mission for the suffering humanity was further stressed

in 1971 when the synod of bishops formulated a document justice in the world, in that

document, the bishops declared that justice and liberation constitutive elements and dimensions

of proclaiming the gospel. The church calls all, to jointly work towards the betterment of the

world. Lumen Gentium no8 agrees with Gaudium et spes when it says that the church

encompasses with love all those who are afflicted with human weakness. The document sees in

the poor and the suffering the likeness of her poor and suffering founder (Christ). The church

hence works towards the needs and alleviation of those who suffer and by so doing strives to

serve Christ (LG no 8).

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Undeniably and understandably, there is a self-evidence deep sensitivity noticeable in late John

Paul II for the sufferings of the world. Round the world the journey took him to various places

where people encountered the pain of poverty, starvation, economic and political oppression.

He always addressed the problem publicly, showing the pain of suffering and its redemptive

possibilities. He described evil as privation of good and suffering as a consequence of sin.

To round up this chapter, we have successfully looked at a good number of authors and people

who talked about the issue at stake as well as the Vatican 11s view. As many as there are

authors so are there different views about suffering. Some tend to agree with the Old Testament

notion of suffering, that is the sinner suffers. Others agree that suffering is peculiar to human

nature and that, human nature as it were, provokes suffering. Still, some suggest that suffering

is relative and is better appreciated from a stand point. Every approach to human suffering is

right, though may not be sufficient depending on its background. No doubt the knowledge

acquired here is so rich and it is the intention of the writer that all suffering in the name of

Christ be viewed as sharing in the redemptive work of Christ and should be a quest for

salvation of souls.

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CHAPTER THREE

THEOLOGICAL EXPOSITION OF HUMAN SUFFERING

In a world beset by varied forms of sufferings, St. Paul offers us as he did for his

contemporaries, the true sense of suffering in the world. A deeper understanding of the cross of

Jesus has made Christians, represented in a significant way by Paul, to transcend the popular

doctrine of divine retribution as the cause of sufferings in the world. Just as in other aspects of

Christian faith, the meaning of suffering is extensively addressed in his (Pauls) life, teaching

and writing.

Thus in this chapter, we shall be looking at various dimensions of human suffering with a view

to bringing out the theological implications.

3.1 IMPLICATION OF HUMAN SUFFERING

Human suffering is one of the human experiences that defies a single definition. This is

because suffering has many dimensions, which are better experienced than defined. One

appreciates its impact more by coming in contact with the person involved in order to perceive

the inexpressible sentiments associated with it. Human words might not always fully grasp the

deep emotions of distress. According to Kris David Stubna (1981) suffering is a disruption of

a human persons inner integrity which results from original personal and social sins and from

the inherent, natural process of creation itself. In this sense, the visible universe, which

disrupts the inner peace, are at the base of human suffering.

More precisely, suffering is a disruption of inner harmony caused by physical mental, spiritual

and emotional forces experienced as isolating and threatening our very existence. Thus,

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according to John Paul II (1982), he describes it as the undergoing of evil before which man

shudders. He does not define it but rather expresses the deep feelings that go with it.

Suffering is experienced and expressed in the form of a loss, a wound, a failure, a serious

disruption or the absence of the condition of well-being. This experience is interpreted as being

physically, psychologically, emotionally, morally or spiritually harmful to the individual or

group of individuals. These descriptions notwithstanding, suffering does not become less

mysterious; it is closely associated with the mysterious problem of evil in the world. As a

matter of fact, no single response to human suffering suffices. The origin of evil and the

meaning of suffering defy simplistic categories. Hence, there is an advantage in conceiving it

as a mystery, which human intelligence cannot completely comprehend. This does not rule out

the need to search further for a better understanding and more appropriate ways of responding

to it.

It is also appropriate to observe that human suffering also has a social character. According to

Ray Spark (1993:953) it is any experience that impinges on an individuals communitys

sense of well-being: synonymous with pain, grief, distress, disruption, affliction, imposition,

oppression, discrimination and any sense of loss or of being victimized.

It can be inferred from the foregoing description that human suffering is wider than a simple

feeling of physical pain. Its meaning comes out more clearly in the context of human subjects

who experience manifest and interpret it within culture, but due to certain cultural and personal

outlook, some people do not find enough meaning in suffering while others it could foster

growth, development and better relationship with God through the cross of Christ.

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In the light of Christ, suffering is integrated into the process by which soul is purified,

strengthened and directed towards the ultimate purposes of human existence, human suffering

could also be described as an important but difficult means of salvation in the light of the

paschal mystery, when one learns to perceive, interpret and undergo the cross in union with

Christ, the painful experience, before which man trembles, looses its original distinctive

orientation and is re-invested with positive values. St. Paul insists in Rom 8:28 that for those

who love God, everything including suffering works for their goal.

Human suffering is meaningful because it is an actual experience, it is not imaginary. In the

physical world, it is encountered by human beings, each according to his particular

dispositions, personal history and cultural environments etc.

Going further, we can describe human suffering negatively as the absence of joy and

happiness in the soul. One feels bad when his happy state is interrupted or when the conditions

for happy life is lacking or deprived. Thomas Aquinas in his summa theologiae of 35, a I, rely

obj 3 explains that the loss of what should be in a persons life is accompanied by some painful

and disgusting feelings, example the deserved good is totally or particularly absent. Hence

Aquinas says, It is like a call that remains unanswered, a yearning that is not fulfilled, a

dashed hope and other forms of frustration vis--vis the intended important accomplishment.

The feeling of frustration and the accompanying crises are capable of causing those who do not

know how to manage difficulties to consider other unhealthy options, such as euthanasia as a

final solution to their ordeal. For many people, the persistence of difficult problems could

provoke severe psychosomatic disorder, the abandoning of the Christian faith or belief in an

all-loving God.

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3.2 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN SUFFERING

From the above description of human suffering, it is observed that human suffering belongs to

mans earthly experience, irrespective of time, place and circumstance of living. The different

kinds of suffering notwithstanding, there are however, certain traits that generally characterize

the entire experience. These become evident when one considers of its power subject, its

universality and general experience of discomfort that accompanies it. For John Part II (1984)

by its very nature, human suffering is very strong that is associated with the problem of evil.

The Greek root of the word mystery is mysterion, from myein that is to shut, to close, to make

secret, etc. a mystery generally speaking, applies to what cannot be fully understood by

human reason or less strictly to whatever resists or defies explanation. Something esoteric but

known only to the initiated or disclosed by revelation. Human suffering is called mystery

because its field is very broad, varied and multi dimensioned. John Paul II explains this

clearly.

Man suffers in different ways, not always considered by medicine, not

even in its most advancement specializations,suffering is something

which is still wider than sickness, more complex at the same time still

more deeply rooted in humanity itself.

In the course of human history, many disciples have emerged, trying to unmask the complexity

of the problem of evil and suffering in the world. Ancient myths philosophies and different

cultural approaches have tried to throw light on it. Incidentally, while some people find it

difficult to acknowledge the existence of an all knowing, all-good and almighty God in the face

of the problems of evil and suffering in the world, others developed superior logics to prove the

existence of God. These problems, notwithstanding, however, no thinker has so far succeeded

in completely disentangling the problem of human suffering.

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In the effort to comprehend and explain the nature and implications of human suffering, it is

plausible to insist that it is a mystery indeed. Suffering, admittedly belongs to the category of

the mysterious in human experience with no adequate rational solution.

As a mystery, mere humans or positive, approaches cannot debunk it. Hence, the difficulty of

the atheists, extreme positivists and materialists in general, in comprehending the nature and

salvific dimension of human suffering is predictable. Similar problems are encountered by

many cultures under the influence of the new wind of modernism. These either deny the

existence of God and mysteries, or simply reject whatever could not be investigated by the

tools of positive service. Modernism seeks to break tie with the tradition cultures, in an

exaggerated quest for new ways of judging, accepting and expressing values. It is characterized

by an infatuation for what is new, easy and gratifying.

The modernist tendency constitutes obstacles to the proper understanding and handling of

human suffering. It does this by regarding as obsolete, the traditional ways of coping with

problems; unfortunately, it hardly provides better alternatives. Human suffering is a mystery

that could not be disentangled by any simplistic approach. According to Celestine C. Umeh

(2006:17) the deep modernists ways of solving problems often give rise to exaggerated

freedom, alcoholism, drug addition, murder, euthanasia, terrorism and permissiveness. These

instead of lessening the gravity of problems make man less capable of coping with difficulties.

As a mystery, the magnitude of human suffering cannot be judged or measured by the human

mental capacity or by concentrated effort to deny it. Man should bow in faith before great

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mysteries while seeking proper ways of understanding it. In this way, he can strive to arrive at

the meaning and purpose of human suffering.

3.3 SUFFERING IS PROPER TO MAN OR RATIONAL BEING.

Having briefly considered the mysterious dimension as a characteristic of human suffering, the

next important characteristic concerns the proper subjects of suffering in the world. Now the

question is do irrational animals suffer? Or is suffering proper to man as man? Obviously, all

animals appear to be in pains at a certain moment of their life. But it has to be clarified whether

the two concepts, namely, suffering and pain express exactly the same idea. Certain concepts

could be technically used to designate peculiar phenomena without ambiguities.

Thus, as far as the proper subjects of suffering in the world are concerned, the understanding of

suffering as a mystery places, it immediately at the realm of beings capable of appreciating the

meaning of mysterious. Suffering has also being desired as a subjective experience which

disrupts the integrity of rational beings. Hence, suffering by its very nature, can be predicated

of the beings of rational nature. It is man precisely, who suffers in the world. The late Supreme

Pontiff Pope John Paul II appreciates this line of thought when he penned down:

Even though man knows and is close to the

suffering of the animal world, nevertheless

what we express by the word sufferingseems to be particularly essential to the

nature of man. It is deep as man himself,

precisely because it manifests in its own way

surpasses it. Suffering seems to belong to

mans transcendence: it is one of those points

in which man is in a certain sense destined to

go beyond himself, and he is called to this in

a mysterious way.

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On one hand, the concepts close to that of human suffering include sorrow, misery, agony etc.

On the other hand, physical pain is close to experience of an ache or a hurt. It is only in an

equivocal sense that suffering and pain could be used interchangeable without doubt; there is a

difference between suffering as a conscious experience or rational beings and a mere sanction

of physical pain by living organism.

Besides, physical pains can be ordinarily used to express a feeling accompanying physical

injuries experienced by animals in general. While suffering is used to depict the miserable

experiences felt in the depth of the soul, by rational beings, sorrow and happiness could result

as after thoughts on actual experiences on rational beings. This is because suffering involves a

reflection, a reinterpretation of the painful experience in the context of a rational nature and

culture. It also goes with some sentiments of regret or sorrow in the soul. Unlike pain, it does

not concern only the pleasant but also the unpleasant part experiences and the frightful future.

But pains are felt at the incidence of an immediate wound and remains only insofar as the

world endures.

It is understandable that, by their very natures, suffering or sorrow and its opposite, namely

happiness or joy are proper to man in the world. Similarly pain has its opposite as pleasure,

both could be experienced at the ordinary animal instinctive level, without doubt, the irrational

animals have the sense or instinct of pain. But they may appreciate the meaning of suffering, in

the sense of sorrow, mourning, grief, remorse of regret etc. this is because they are naturally

equipped with the capacity for suffering; human suffering is wider than bodily pain, just as

rational knowledge is deeper than an instinctive feeling.

3.4 THE VARIOUS KINDS OF HUMAN SUFFERING

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Human suffering is an existential problem which by its nature, is unique and multiple in a

sense, it is one, because it is generally marked by a certain disruption of would-have-been

happy state of life, it is also characterized by a defect and deficiency in the essential conditions

for such happy state. In another sense, human suffering is diversified, because of its

manifestations in an ever new and multiple fashions, according to the prevailing circumstance,

time place and culture of its victims, suffering is further distinguished by its various causes and

diverse ways of manifestation in the human body and soul or both.

In a broad way, considering (Isaiah 38:1-3; Mt 9:19-20) human suffering can be considered

under the following headings: protracted and deadly sickness Thus, repeated deaths in ones

family particularly death of ones own children or parents (cf Gen. 37: 33-35; 2Sam 19:1-5)

death of an only son or first born (cf Job 10:1-7, Jer 6:26; Amos 8:10; Zech 12:10) lack of

offspring or barrenness (cf Gen 15:2-3; 30:1-2; 1Sam 1:6-11). Poverty and discrimination

based on ethnicity or caste systems, nostalgia for homeland. (cf Ps 137:1-90) persecution and

hostility of the environment, natural catastrophes and humanly caused accidents, mockery and

scorn of the one who suffers (Job 19:18; 30: 1-10; Ps 42:10-31; 44, 15-16; Isa 53:3). Loneliness

and abandonment, remorse of conscience, difficulty in understanding why the wicked prospers

while the just suffers (cf Ps 73:2-15) breach of confidence, ingratitude and treachery by close

associates and neighbours; death of one husband and wife, divorce, the misfortunes of ones

own nation. (cf Ps 79:10-13; Ezek 9:8 Dan 3:32-33; 9:16-19).

From the above examples, one gleans that human suffering can be grouped under physical,

moral, psychological, mystical and vicarious suffering, depending on its cause manifestation

and how it affects the human life.

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decisions and improper actions his sins and consequences these have on him and others etc.

These miserable conditions could be inflicted on the subject by other people also.

The moral evil, namely, sin is accomplished by moral distressed. But a moral agony, which

may begin as a feeling of regret, remorse of sympathy depending on its intensity, duration and

causes, may affect the physical as well as the psychological levels of the sufferer. This is

because of the unique nature of the human person.

3.4.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL SUFFERING

Human beings also suffer at the psyche. In the psyche, are imbedded the underlying conscious,

subconscious and the unconscious motives of human behavior. Psychology testifies that each

person has his own peculiarities; he perceives, interprets and reacts to stimuli according to his

unique temperaments, personal experiences. Environments and circumstances of living.

Therefore, human suffering has a psychological dimension which may occur from or

accompany both physical and moral suffering or give rise to them.

Psychological suffering crises constitute real problems for man. Under normal circumstances,

the crises feature in his daily life at a manageable degree. These occur as little worries, doubts,

trifling fears and slight preoccupation. When these reach a critical level, the human subject

becomes restless. It then begins to manifest as upsetting fear, sporadic anger, dissatisfaction,

self-negation, rage and at worst a pathologic depression.

3.4.4 MYSTICAL SUFFERING

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Along side the psychological sort of human suffering there is also the mystical kind of

suffering. Suffering that is mystical is follow-up of a mystical experience. Mystical phenomena

are generally characterized by an immediate and intensive kind of knowledge or experience

beyond the world of sensory perception, in which God, the transcendent reveals himself to a

human person who assumes a more passive role in the process.

Man naturally knows God by the light of reason and through the divine revelation. Another

way of knowing God is the beatific vision, the privileged experience of the Saints in heaven.

For the Christian, a mystical experience could be a gift not merit. Consequent upon a mystical

encounter with the Holy and absolute, a profound intuitive knowledge, which transcends the

normal categories of understanding, is gained. Mystical suffering is one of the possible

consequences of such experiences and could result from a mystical union with the crucified or

provoked by a deep sense of sin in the world, mans finitude and unworthiness, vis--vis the

overwhelming love, greatness and absolute holiness of God.

3.5 THE COMPOSITE OF HUMAN PROVOKES SUFFERING

The natural facts of mans earthly life are important for understanding the difficulties that he

encounters in the world. His nature is composite of a material body and a spiritual soul. From

the point of view of his own person, he is equipped with and conditioned by certain biological,

psychological and spiritual presents. Suffice this to say that man is born with certain genetic

predispositions, physical features and rational capacities for auto-transcendence etc. He does

not claim responsibility for such facts as his nationality, height, natural complexion, blood

group genotype, temperaments and other psychosomatic features that personify him. By all

indications, man appears not to be perfect being. He is engaged in a process of self-

actualization. Even, the human race grows and develops as individuals evolve as a people.

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In the world, man passes through the crises of growth, works for daily bread, admits the limited

resources and defends himself against inimical factors. Finally, man dwindles in strength and

health, as he advances in age. The fear of death and his fate after the worldly sojourn are also

among his major preoccupations. The Fathers of the Vatican II observed that it is in regard to

death that mans condition is most shrouded in doubt. Man is tormented not only by pain and

by the gradual breaking up of his body but also and even more by the dread of forever ceasing

to be. According to Albert Furioli, (1987:3) sickness and death form part of our earthly

existential fabric: I suffer because I have feelings. I fall sick because I have a biological

organism; I die because I was born

3.6 THE THEOLOGICAL REASONING INTO THE LINK BETWEEN SIN AND

SUFFERING

Man is a being in communion with the other rational entities and the irrational order. He lives

and realizes his being in his relationship with the other. The other is primarily God himself the

source, sustainer and the ultimate end of the humankind. Mans relationship with the author of

his being is axial, not appendicular; it is not a side reference but absolutely vital, a conditio sine

que non for mans continuous existence and happiness. He must constantly and continuously be

maintained by God. God is the base in exclusion of which there is no other foundation for man.

In this view the catechism of he Catholic Church, 385 maintains that should man seek to break

away from his essential and irreplaceable base, he is only attempting to establish another false

base or merely pretending to do without God; this is the most fundamental implication of sin.

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Sin is technically defined according to Paul J. Glenn as a human act (that is, a deliberate

thought, word, deed, desire, omission) contrary to right reason, and therefore contrary to God.

It is primary a revolt against the divine government.

A spiritual-mutiny, a rebellion against divine providence. To sin is to avert God, in a way

telling him that he is not relevant. God endowed man with reason and freewill, intending that

man may know choose love and do what is good while avoiding its contraries. But through sin,

man abuses his freedom and seeks what is improper. The first sin of man was characterized by

certain dissatisfaction which man was longing to be unduly independent of God and a

presumption to establish by the desire for the knowledge of good and evil. Cardinal sins such as

(pride, gluttony, lust, avarice, sloth, envy and anger) are regarded as grave psychological-

psycho-moral sickness.

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CHAPTER FOUR

SUFFERING IN THE LIGHT OF PAULINE THEOLOGY (2COR 1:3-7)

The early Christians when Paul unexpectedly joined with his youthful exuberance emerged

from a background that had negative conception about suffering. It was considered as a divine

attribution. Human beings suffer because of their personal sin. God is just and he rewards each

person according to his deeds. The wicked cannot evade his just judgment.

The belief in the vindication of the divine justice has its fundamental etiology in the fall of the

primordial parents of human beings. In the two accounts of creation at the beginning,

everything God created was perfectly good and they are given divine approval by the

reiteration of the phrase: God saw that it was good (Cf Gen 1, 4, 10, 12, 18, 21-25, 31). It is

important to note briefly that this phrase occurs seven times in the creation narrative. In the

bible, the number seven is a significance number symbolizing completion and perfection.

Goodness in Gods creation is fully perfect. Sin of our parents however, initiated suffering and

its accompanying pain.

Throughout the different stages in the historical development of the Old Testament thoughts

and theology the problem of suffering had been validly addressed. It is normally linked that it is

due to human sinful actions, either personal or inherited from ancestors. A classical literary

work on divine attribution in the Old Testament is the book of Job, which is the person of his

interlocutors proved different views on the case of suffering. It is an age-long pa### that has

dwelt with human beings.

The eye witness of Jesus whom Paul joined came from the background that understood

suffering as a consequence of personal sin. According to Obiorah Jerome, (2010:63) Paul

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himself with his proficiency in Hebrew Scriptures must have shared the same belief with his

contemporaries. Jesus inaugurated a new era of understanding and interpretation of the

scriptures. In his teaching, he led his bearers to transcend that popular belief that suffering is as

a result of ones sins (cf Lk 13:1-5, Jn 9:2).

Paul broke away from that popular idea when he encountered Jesus. He turned from a

persecutor to an ardent believer; he suffered immensely for his faith. He fulfilled the prophecy

made about him at his dramatic conversion. I myself will show him how much he must suffer

for the sake of my name (Acts 9, 16). The content of the God News, evangelion, he

proclaimed was the crucified Jesus who rose from the dead. His teachings on suffering can be

summed up thus: suffering is inevitable is human life, it has a benefiting function and that,

suffering unites us to Christ.

However, the major concern of this chapter is the interpretation of human suffering in the view

of St. Paul, with the aim of giving the ##### a better understanding.

4.1 THE PAULINE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN SUFFERING (2 COR 1, 3-7).

In the New Testament and other Christian, literatures, suffering is given a secondly

understanding, which serves as a discipline function. According to St. Paul, for just as the

suffering of Christ overflows into our lives so if we have hardships to undergo, this will

contribute to our encouragement and salvation: (2Cor, 1,5-6); according to Morns Leon

(199:30). Suffering, then is part of the process of living out the Christian life, and Paul suggest

that we should not regard it as something monstrous and alien.

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It is in the present time that Christians prepare for the future glory. They should follow Jesus

who suffered and entered into glory. I considered that the sufferings of this present time are

not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us (Rom 8, 18). Suffering is a

necessary preliminary, and assurance of coming glory which will eclipse all the preceding

anguish. We are in the midst of suffering in the present time as we prepare for the future glory.

Similarly, St. Paul goes on to say that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces

character and character produces hope. (Rom 5, 3-4).

Pauls theme of the necessity of sharing in the suffering of Christ as a prerequisite of sharing in

the glories of Christ should not be carried to extremes, Jesus represents the gospels embodined

of the concept of the suffer servant. Seeing Jesus not only as a suffering servant, but also as the

Messiah. Thus, is working out this Pauline theology, he narrates that Christ Jesus is the means

by which the suffering of this world, mans inherit sinfulness and death itself can ne overcome.

By being at home with him who suffered, a person is able to achieve a state that is free from

suffering and death. As we share abundantly in Christs suffering so through him we share

abundantly in comfort to citing Paul in his book Udejiofor (2006 51) maintains that I have

suffered the loss of things .. In order that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and

may share in his suffering.

The Pauline spiritual insight on human suffering enriched by personal experience and inspired

by Christ crucified. Paul desired suffering, cherishes and embraces it. He preaches the gospel of

suffering; he prays sufferings, not for suffering sake but for the meritorious salvific grace

inherent in it. Pauls position in terms of suffering has an ecclesial dimension which is worthy

of mention, for he knows that he does not suffer alone, but in union the church, which is the

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body of Christ, and not only in union with the Church but for the benefit of the Church (cf Col

1, 2-4).

Another dimension of the Pauline theology is the feelings of Christ a compassion for the

suffering people, having been closed by God himself in his suffering, he becomes consolation

to others. We can see that for Paul and for other apostles and witness of the New Testament,

suffering does not constitute any problem. There is blessing in the folly of the cross.

4.2 THE CORINTHIANS VIEW OF HUMAN SUFFERING

In Pauls #### and in other New Testament works the cross on which Jesus was crucified has

become a fundamental term for Jesus suffering and death for the salvation of human. It was a

gradual process for the early Church to move from their ordinary understanding of Christs

ignominious death on the cross to a higher conception this as divine means of saving humans

from their degradation. Paul was very outstanding in propounding this new doctrine. Suffering

for him is a proof of our love for him when we suffer for the same motive for which he

accepted the cross.

The crucified Christ who rose from the dead is the summary of Pauls teaching. It is evangelion

tou theo (the Gospel of God), because God is the source of the message. It is also Pauls

evangelion for he has personalized it with the phrase evangelion mou (my Gospel). Pauls

teaching on the cross of Jesus can be considered under these two major parts: the cross is the

means God has freely chosen to reveal himself in Christ and in human history and the cross is

the principle of Christian discipleship/apostleship.

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It was through the word of the cross that the Saga of human redemption was won. According

to Joseph Bayobin (2004: 56) the Corinthians therefore believed that we are called not only to

reflect on suffering crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, but also to share in his suffering

through self-mortification. We can also make the sacrifice of legitimate pleasures in order to

show gratitude for what Christ has done for humanity. Jesus suffered and accepted death even

on the cross due to the love he has for us.

Therefore, the Corinthians build up their spirituality towards suffering because of their

conviction, we too are called to suffer because cross stands for suffering. It is a teaching among

the Corinthians that has a lot of truth in it; this is so because it has its basis on the concept of

expiation: suffering and death of Christ, which is very fundamental in Christian belief.

Christians are enjoined by divine revelation to always have a preferential option for the way of

the cross. Suffering in itself is not something good; human beings naturally do not like it. But

through it, we can attain sanctification or growth to Christian maturity.

Besides, Corinthian sees suffering as that which unites them with Christ. When a leader imparts

from lived experience, he or she speaks from personal conviction, persuasively, and the words

achieve more than their desired end. Paul is an ideal teacher. From the wealth of his personal

experiences he learned that suffering does not separate us from the love of God. Who will

separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardships, or ### or persecution, or famine, or

nakedness, or peril or word? (Rom 8, 35). Paul experienced all these in his life and learned

that they brought him closer to the divine master.

Experience of suffering prepares one for the kingdom of God, writing to the Christians at

Thessalonica, Paul reflects on the intrinsic link between suffering and the kingdom of God:

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therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfast and faith

deceiving all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduing. This is evidence of the

righteous judgment of god, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of god, for

which you are also suffering. (2 Thess.1, 45).

Furthermore, for the Christians in the Corinthian Church, no amount of suffering allowed to

visit us should separate us from God. Suffering should never become a reason for engaging in

sinful behavior. We are afflicted in event possible way, we never despair, we are persecuted

but never abandoned we are struck down but never destroyed. Continually we carry our bodied

the life of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed (Cf 2 Co 4, 8-10).

Equally, Paul did not give in to self-pity, resentment, hatred in the face of suffering, but rather

converted his suffering into a hymn of praise to God, so we believers in Corinth called to

demonstrate strong, heroic love of God in face of difficulties. In say this, we are also remember

the Jobless, the sick, the homeless, widows and orphans, the oppressed, those imprisoned,

particularly those who suffer for no just cause or because of their political affliction or being

outspoken for justice in the society.

Thus, this is possible when there is a clear understanding on the meaning and purpose of Jesus

suffering and death on the cross. In the encyclical-salvific Doloris, the pope used words such as

The Gospel of suffering that Christians endure in union with Christ and for the salvation of the

world. He suffered so that human kind may be set free from suffering. This means his suffering

was explicatory or substitutional, cf Is 53. Here the prophet describes someone under the title,

suffering servant. His description of the kind of suffering this servant of God would undergo

agrees in many respects with the kind of suffering Jesus underwent in his passion the

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sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. He was pierced through for our faults crushed

for our sins on him lies a punishment that brings us peace and through his wounds, we are

healed.

4.3 THE REDEMPTIVE VALUES OF SUFFERING IN THE CORINTHIAN

CHURCH

The redemptive dimension of Christs suffering leads one to a new orientation and

understanding of human suffering. For John Paul II (1984:24), human suffering has reached

its culmination in the passion of Christ. And at the same time it has entered into a completely

new dimension and a new order: it has been linked to love.

The implication here is that by the suffering and death of Christ on the cross, human suffering

also has become redemptive. It has been brought to light by the following statement according

to Christians Usugngurua, (2006:10):

In the cross of Christ not only is the redemption accomplished through

suffering, but also human suffering it has been redeemed in

bringing about redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised

human suffering to the level of redemption.

Since human suffering has received a new salvific dimension with definitive value from Christ,

everyone is called appropriate the redemptive aspect in his own suffering and become a sharer

in the redemptive suffering of Christ.

Suffering is a litmus test of our faith (1Thess 3,2-5). It is in suffering that we prove what we

are. Suffering reveals the strength of our faith. Knowing the value of suffering in his life and in

the life of Christians, Paul rejoices in tribulations: therefore I am content with weakness,

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insults hardships, persecutions and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak,

then I am strong (2Cor 12, 10). Every little pain we experience in union with Jesus brigs us

close to him and to our God.

Suffering is an essential mark of discipleship for it brings a follower of Christ closer to the

master who himself took the path of suffering. Those who shun sufferings in their lives are

enemies of the cross of Jesus: For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often

told you of them and now I tell you even with tears (Phil 3, 18). Suffering prepares us for the

coming glory. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with

the glory about to be revealed to us (Rom 8,18). Just like Jesus who suffered and rose from the

dead, Christians crown of glory comes after the cross. The hymn in Pauls bitter to the

Philippians 2, 6-11 is structured on this: W 6-8 describe the self-empting of Jesus, W 9-11 is on

the exaltation.

Besides, the idea of redemptive suffering becomes very compelling when we come to see that

suffering is still a part of human life. Osungurua still maintains that:

It is something we experience often despite the fact that Jesus dead to

set us free from it. Not only sinners suffers but sometimes, even those

with worldwide reputation for Holy and saintly lives. Sometimes,

suffering defiles all prayers and forces us to discern what the will of

God really is for us at certain trying moments.

John Paul II of blessed memory explains the Christians meaning of suffering, what our

suffering can be a contribution of the first grade in our fight for the victory over evil powers. It

can become a precious contribution to Gods salvific work if we accept it generously. Our

suffering has a precious function in the life of the Church and we can utilize it to build up the

Church.

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According to the explanation of the significance of suffering in salvific Deloris suffering is an

invitation to manifest the moral greatness of man and his spiritual maturity. It may be a trial at

triunes a hard one to let ones faith or fidelity in God manifest. Based on the experiences of the

saints such as St. Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyal and others, it has been recognized that in

suffering there is concealed power that devours a person interiously close to Christ a special

grace.

4.4 CHRISTS RESPONSE TO THE HUMAN SUFFERING IN THE CORINTHIAN

CHURCH

The New Testament wrings present and provides us valuable insights into Christs response to

human suffering, precisely in Corinth. Thus, to understand Christs response to human

suffering in the Church at Corinth, let us first understand his own response to his suffering.

According to Udejiofor, (2006:94):

Christs attitude towards his own suffering shows his willingness to

suffer. Peter had the great difficultly of accepting the necessity of Jesus

suffering, he demonstrated against it, but he was rebuked by Jesus. He

healed those who were suffering and most immediately predicts his

own suffering and those of his followers.

Christ showed his willingness acceptance and surrender to the will of the father. He therefore

calls us to follow his examples. Our human condition is Gods invitation for human to enter

into a mysterious yet a meaningful union of love and relationship with God.

Christs response to the suffering humanity is founded in love. The Divine Human love by

which he took flesh in his incarnation and suffering and died on the cross. Christ beheld mans

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helplessness and powerless state, thus he would heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper

and forgive the sinners.

According to St. Paul, Christs suffering is transcended by eschatology. Paul desires suffering

cherishes it, embraces it, as well as preaches it, in fact he actually prays for suffering, not for

suffering sake but for the meritorious salvific grace inherent in it. Hence, Paul desires nothing

according to him accepts to suffer and to reproduce Christs pattern of death in his mortal body.

Commenting further, Udejiofor maintains:

Suffering can only be acceptable appreciated and endured for the

sake of Jesus, for he would not suffer as he wishes, Like Christ but for

Christ and with Christ.

Following St. Pauls theological insight, suffering now should be desired, but mostly because

of love for Christ who suffered innocently for our redemption.

4.5 CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO HUMAN SUFFERING IN THE

CORINTHIAN CHURCH

In a society where Christians move from one prayer house to another seeking remedies to

human suffering, Paul as it were, offers us a good teaching, thus his teaching becomes highly

instructive. One is tempted to ask, why do contemporary Christians shun suffering with all their

strength? Why do we who live in the age of unrestrained Pentecostalism propagate and live a

kind of Christianity without the cross of Christ? Why do we complain and blame God and

fellow human beings for every little discomfort? Why do prayer houses multiply in many

comers of our society? These are different means we have devised in our effort to reject

suffering and keep our eyes far from its saving function in human life as it were in the

Corinthian Church.

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Many contemporary cultures as it were, have a world view akin to the religion of the ancient

Israel. Suffering in our cultures is primarily rejected and attributed to some forces outside

human realm. It is often seen as punishment, a just reward, a boomerang for evil actions against

common good, fellow human beings and even the creator. Advent of the Christian faith has

done very little among some in changing this common traditional concept of suffering.

However, the issue of human suffering and evil has moved beyond the frontier of the realm of

academic and scholarly journals, now the issue on the large part involves justice world pieces,

freedom from mans inhumanity against men. Udejiofor has this to say:

Suffering presents itself as a school of human development and

personal growth in which the purpose of creation is not frustrated but

realized.

In seeking the way of peace we must look to the victim through whom

God has concealed the world to himself, for as Paul writes to the

Ephesians: In his flesh Jesus removes the wall which divided the

court of the gentiles eliminates the division between Jews and

Gentiles, and makes peace in order to create in himself one new

humanity (cf Eph 2, 14ff).

According to John Hick, the mystery of Gods love for us is that the redemptive process turns

all things unto good even human selfishness of our lives, which is build into the birth process

of the entire Cosmos. He saw suffering as essential for human self-realization and encounter

with the divine.

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