God Wastes Nothing!

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

The simple obvious “solution” to evil is to simply never allow it to happen.  This seems wisest to us, yet for his own profoundly mysterious reasons, God has disagreed with us and chosen to conquer evil, not by annihilating it, but by making even evil the paradoxical servant of God and by thereby ennobling those who have endured it with the same glory as his Son.  At the heart of the Christian faith is the mystery of the cross and of redemptive suffering.  Even God himself has suffered evil.  But in so suffering he has more than merely defeated evil, he has made it the occasion of good that makes death itself a door into heaven and not just a hole in the ground.  It is a mystery that is literally beyond words.  If you are bearing your cross today, know that through it you are being made, in the darkest and most impenetrable mystery of the universe, an agent of God’s power and work in the world for the salvation of others.  In the light of the cross, nothing—-not even suffering—-is wasted.

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Mark P. Shea is a popular Catholic writer and speaker. The author of numerous books, his most recent work is The Work of Mercy (Servant) and The Heart of Catholic Prayer (Our Sunday Visitor). Mark contributes numerous articles to many magazines, including his popular column “Connecting the Dots” for the National Catholic Register. Mark is known nationally for his one minute “Words of Encouragement” on Catholic radio. He also maintains the Catholic and Enjoying It blog and regularly blogs for National Catholic Register. He lives in Washington state with his wife, Janet, and their four sons.

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