The Mystery of Suffering by Hubert van Zeller
Author:Hubert van Zeller
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780870612961
Publisher: Ave Maria Press
Published: 2015-09-18T04:00:00+00:00
6
Suffering as a Punishment
Up till now we have considered suffering more as a privilege than as a punishment. This chapter aims at correcting any false emphasis which there may be about this, and at showing how compunction, a spirit of penance, is a necessary part of the soul’s spiritual development. That pain is part of man’s retribution for his misuse of free will is something which demands more than a mere notional assent: the idea has to be brought into practical life. While it is obviously a more lofty concept to think of our human suffering in the context of Christ’s Passion, there is the less lofty side of it too—namely that we thoroughly deserve what we get.
It is a curious fact that, in the modern world, people suffer a strong sense of guilt while repudiating a sense of sin. Sin is excused, explained away, mistaken for quite half a dozen other things, yet guilt remains. People have become so confused about sin that perhaps, like the unfortunate hero in Kafka’s novel The Trial, they genuinely do not know the terms of their accusation or the precise nature of their crimes, but all the time they are haunted by a dread for which they must take the blame. Our first parents could cover themselves with leaves, but they could not cover up their shame.
People are always inventing new leaves to cover old sins, but there is such a thing as conscience which cannot be fooled. With conscience goes fear, and the more a man tries to stifle conscience with one or other unreality, the more real does his fear become. Various philosophies in history have set out to deliver the mind from the fear of eternal punishment. In apostolic times, it was the Epicureans who were the difficulty, belittling the consequence of personal wrongdoing; today it is those psychologists and analysts who base all our instincts on “nature” and who reduce the morally wrong to the outwardly harmful or anti-social.
For those who would have us believe that the only evils are antisocial evils, the good tends to reduce itself to humanitarian good. So long as people do not harm others, and so long as they try to be kind and nice, there is nothing (so the argument runs) to worry about. Unkindness in one form or another becomes accordingly the only ground for guilt. Charity to everyone, readiness to forgive, always the helping hand. It looks Christian enough. But it is a very cockeyed view of Christianity because it does not go all the way.
Even if our only sin were unkindness, we would have plenty to answer for, but in fact we deserve punishment for a whole catalogue of sins, which present-day Epicureans rule out as being inherited tendencies, psychotic compulsions, instincts yearning for appropriate—and therefore legitimate—fulfilment. If chastity is a repression, if jealousy is a conditioned reflex, if habitual lying and laziness and greed can be clinically accounted for, the sinner has little left in the way of sin which he can call his own.
Download
The Mystery of Suffering by Hubert van Zeller.epub
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman(9307)
The Space Between by Michelle L. Teichman(6589)
Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb(5867)
Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi(5336)
Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler(4487)
Gerald's Game by Stephen King(4386)
Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell(4040)
A Simplified Life by Emily Ley(3975)
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale(3872)
Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly(3205)
Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis(3130)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J. K. Rowling(3126)
Being Aware of Being Aware by Rupert Spira(3094)
The Code Book by Simon Singh(2877)
Real Sex by Lauren F. Winner(2876)
More Language of Letting Go: 366 New Daily Meditations by Melody Beattie(2860)
Name Book, The: Over 10,000 Names--Their Meanings, Origins, and Spiritual Significance by Astoria Dorothy(2850)
The Holy Spirit by Billy Graham(2784)
The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word by Joyce Meyer(2765)
