God and Suffering

From the day we are born we begin to die. We live, we grow, but while we do so this life occurs hand in hand with death. From this death we experience suffering, yet can it be that our suffering has no purpose other than to make our lives difficult and at times unbearable? Or is that our suffering acts as nothing more than that which we must escape at all costs? Is there something in our suffering that has meaning?

It is held that the divinity sends forth its energy into creation. This energy becomes the essence of all that has being, and without this energy nothing would exist. The perfection of the essence of all things is the goal of divine providence. This essence, which is none other than the energy of God and which indeed is God, is returned to His divinity in a completion of all that is.

Providence, or the perfection of all that is by the allowance or causal act of the divine will, can be aptly called the act of all forces working in harmony. Each unique essence of creation is an extension of the transcendent nature of God, and as such is subject to such a divine will which seeks to maintain harmony and perfection in what is His. But this divine will is that of love, and seeks the ultimate aim of returning each essence in a perfected state to partake of this love in an ecstasy and ravishment of the outpouring from the transcendent essence of love held by the divine nature which is above all that the created world can offer.

The object then of providence is the perfection of being of each created essence, and is the result of all forces of the divine energy working in harmony. The essence of creation then contains the image of the divine nature, and can become a mirror likeness of that nature, and it is only by obtaining the similitude to the divinity that it may come to rest in the return of the divine energy to its source.

The attributes then which make a being in the likeness of its parent image becomes the ultimate source of participation in the return of its essence to the first cause, which is none other than our salvation. The obtaining of these attributes in the rational creation is a matter of synergy, that is, the divinity seeks to perfect its energy and us with it, and we must agree to be perfected. We may choose to follow the divine path of return or we may seek to not only reject this way of return but may also corrupt our nature, though the pure essence of our being will always remain in participation of that divine energy however weak such participation may be.

But in the sense of providence there is more than our existence to account for in the harmonizing of its energy for the divine returning. Not only does each thing which has conscious and rational being interact within itself, but also with the rest of creation throughout its life. And as time continues forward and history records the acts of creation, we must assume that from the beginning of time until the end the unique essence of each being interacts within its place in time and also affects creation in future references of time. The created mind can only comprehend so much of history, but in terms we can understand imagine it is the flapping wings of an unknown amount of butterflies creating winds from the beginning of time until the end, all of which is guided by providence for the perfection of creation.

Thus the virtues of one man affect another, and the sufferings of one affect another, and even the immorality of one affects another, but all guided within providence throughout time for the salvation of those things which seek the divine return into salvation.

Again, the attributes which are conducive to fitting in to the divine return are the object of this providence. These attributes cannot always be obtained or held within the realm of seeking a return of the creature's essence to creation instead of the divine source. Therefore it often happens that a separation of the return to creation of each individual being by providence is desired in order to guide the individual being to return instead to the divinity. This separation may occur through pleasure, but it may also occur through pain, which pain is often the result of rational creation experiencing the process of separation from the return to the created world. It may also be a pain experienced in the prevention of a return to the created world instead of the uncreated.

Divine providence, in seeking to perfect creation, foresees the synergy occurring in the life of creation and thus will return the individual to itself at the moment of the attainment of the highest possible perfection of its essence, so that each thing may rest in salvation. Not all of rational creation seeks this return, and thus not all things will rest in the salvation through divine completion.

So I as an individual suffer. I either suffer from another or from myself. This suffering is the result of the generations preceding my existence and also my own volition in seeking creation as the object of my salvation, and has the aim of my salvation by returning me towards the uncreated instead of the created. My suffering and the expression of my suffering throughout my life also has the aim of affecting all those in my generation and in future generations towards salvation. The more that I use this suffering to move myself towards the uncreated rest and away from the created rest, seeking salvation in the divine and not the created, I can say my suffering will decrease. Yet I as creation have yet to be perfected and thus I will always have some sort of suffering. Even more, the divinity, in allowing and seeking to increase my perfection will likewise allow suffering in order to return me more fully to seeking salvation in the uncreated nature. Pleasure may be used to affect this return to the uncreated, however it is often precisely pleasure which is the cause of the individual seeking rest in the created world at the expense of the uncreated world.

We will never be able to be rid of suffering since we are not perfect. Yet we can be thankful and use our suffering for our perfection and salvation, and this itself will allow us to suffer yet not be controlled by it, so that our transcendence of suffering can only come by accepting suffering and using it for our perfection. If we seek to flee our suffering through a return to the created world we are doing nothing other than denying our salvation. The fact that we are suffering at all may be taken as a sign of God's love for us seeking our salvation, whereas if we are not suffering (if such a thing is possible) we may have great cause for concern.