Catholic perspective of suffering · No suffering is meaningless · Suffering can reorder the mind to resist sin · Suffering is redemptive because Christ went through it . C.C.T adherents are able to participate in their own redemption by writing their suffering in one in whose image they have been created . The belief that suffering can bring human beings closer to God · Suffering produces character, character produces hope and endurance (Romans 5:24) · Like Jesus who suffered and lived, died and resurrected so human beings are able to be like Jesus and be resurrected to live eternally with God · Season of lent - suffering · Big mystery of life - why do we suffer? · Jesus came to give hope through suffering, he came to transform suffering and give it meaning . St Paul's - Corinthians 1:2 power of God not weakness · Redemptive suffering through Jesus The purposes of suffering · God always has a good purpose in allowing suffering, even when that purpose is inscrutable to us. We are made for eternal life with God 1. To awaken us to reality 2. To test us 3. To discipline us, to teach us humility and trust, and to work righteousness into us 4. To give us an opportunity to love God, to give God glory, to merit glory, and to participate in His work of redemption Our suffering is not meaningless, but meaningful precisely because it is joined to Christ's own sufferings, as a sharing in His suffering. III. How do we participate in Christ's Sufferings? H0w should be respond to suffering?