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Robert Barron | – Why Does God Allow Suffering? — Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

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Robert Barron
By Bishop Robert Barron
46 Comments

Friends, God is close to us, even in our suffering. But it seems inexplicable that he could preside over our calamities, and so we ask, “How could God do this to me?” But the Lord’s ways are not our ways, and our capacity to truly understand his will is limited. We must therefore place our trust in God’s infinite and intimate care for our souls.

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Bishop Robert Barron These are brief and insightful commentaries on faith and culture by Catholic theologian and author Bishop Robert Barron. The videos complement his weekly sermons posted and podcasted at WordOnFire.org.

Comment (46)

  1. Thank you Bishop. I had the same experience with my dog some year back. I almost came to the same conclusion about the difference between the thinking capacity of a dog and a human as being similar to the ways of God and those of morals like us. It was a joy hearing you had the same experience and using the story to explain how we can never elevate our thinking to that of God.

  2. Yes Infinitely close yet infinitely far; I would add infinitely deep, so transcendent we do not have understanding or words to describe. I am so humbled and grateful those infinite transcendent thoughts and plans for us are from God's Love.

  3. Father, do not say that God is unreachable. It is not a question of distance, but of a mode of being. But even if the Empyrean were beyond mortal reach or comprehension, don't the angels themselves bring us gifts from the altar of heaven to cleanse us and instruct us? Doesn't the voice of the Almighty say to his saints, 'Come up here' (Rev 4:1, Rev 11:12)? Don't let sin and fear keep you from reaching and striving for the highest that is possible for you. It is damnation and shame that causes us to feel that window is closed, that feels doors are shut in front and behind. Stop wavering, father. Even Enoch walked with God before he was taken up. And how can that be, unless it is of a kind and not of a place. You have a destination in mind, instead of a state, but the man of God brings God wherever he finds himself.

  8. How do you differentiate such incoherent words from any other mythology? Assertions without any objective evidence will only be accepted by the gullible. (NOTE: if you respond to this with being snarky, you will be reported.)

  14. Bishop, Good analogies with you and Tiger, and the young boy and his father but let's add to them to understand God's love.  

    We may not be able to use words to communicate so that Tiger or the boy understand what we understand. But through our actions, we can convey compassion and love. Our mission in life, everyone's mission, is to demonstrate God's love through our actions. With Tiger, your compassion of holding him so that he could see your concern and that you were there with him, through it, and during the experience showed that love and trust to Tiger. Same with the father and the child during surgery. That you and the father of that child suffered through the experience with them to the best of your ability showed the dog and the boy God's compassion through your actions and through your compassion brought God to them and made his love felt by them.

    God went a significant step further. God went beyond what we as humans have the ability to do. He shares our human experience and limitations by becoming one of us, so that we can see him through Jesus as a model of how to handle suffering. God is not limited in his ability to communicate to us because of our limited human understanding. He became one of us so that we could see, hear, feel, touch, smell, and experience him with all our emotions and sensations.  

    Jesus showed us how to trust in God, that he will raise us beyond the worst suffering of our death physically and to sin. God became one of us, and he suffered as one of us. God did that by demonstrating his love for us in that humble and loving act of becoming human so that we can have "God with us" as something tangible in our lives, in our world, in our understanding, as we ponder the greatness of God with the best of our human abilities so they we can better trust in him.

  20. Here's where the analogy you used falls short according to atheists, bishop. They say that God is all powerful, hence he can deliver his cause without the need for sufferings. On the other hand, you and I wouldn't be able to prevent the suffering caused by the vaccine shot to our kids or pets because we are limited and not all powerful. I would love to read your answer to this question.

    Thanks, and God bless

  23. Not a great answer . " I don't know" is better. Sometimes the question is asked as though we shouldn't suffer. I think we suffer because we are incomplete and suffering opens us to a higher reality in which we find meaning and allows us to find God .

  24. From Romans 8: " we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." We are called to share the suffering of God's love. "The peace of God is beyond understanding." I.e. Incomprehensible.

  25. Can you explain repression Bishop Barron? There is always some sort of negative reaction when we suppress our instincts. For example, depression could be a result of repressing our desire to do sin. If we sincerely want to follow God's way, then why would he allow repression to happen? If God already knew about penicilian why did so many have to die before it was discovered?

  26. I would propose, Evil is not from God. The simple fact of free will is the explanation. Not answering the accusations of atheists. God does not violate his commandments. He didn’t participate in the Holocaust. He allowed the free will of men, to do it. Evil in the world, is on us. Not God

  27. Thanks so much Bishop for a great lesson. I was also taught many years ago that God allows suffering because he can obtain good from suffering and evil. This is not always seen at the time of pain and tragedy, but part of his enormous plan for good.

  28. Respectfully, there was no explanation given. The answer provided was that God's ways are incomprehendable to lowly humans. It also assumes that all suffering has purpose and is for our good, like bringing a dog to the vet. But clearly people have suffered and died unjustly.

  33. What about free will that chooses evil and the effect of evil on all forms of suffering , physical, emotional and the distortion of the natural world. If prayer can work wonders in this world, does it not also counter the spiritual effects of evil that can affect the world also in a evil manner.?

  34. Good exposition-but it leaves the question: are we to attempt to remedy adverse conditions? Say you get a dreadful disease like cancer-should you accept it as God's will, or attempt an aggressive treatment (chemotherapy), which is of uncertain success? Since God's will is ultimately "for the best", should you decline the treatment and hope for a miracle? In Aquinas' time, all disease was thought to come from God (or from unclean spirits), and what medicine existed was often useless. So are such incidents to be treated as God's Will, or as simple consequences of the physical world? I believe that Jesus was once asked if some people who were killed when a tower collapsed died because of God's plans-I think his answer "of course not". So the question remains.

  35. Horrific suffering of humans and non-human animals has occurred for millions of years. Throughout human history, innumerable prayers imploring God to relieve the suffering (e.g., of a child suffering from cancer) have gone unanswered. Why? The Good Bishop tells us that God has allowed (or even caused) this suffering for reasons that are beyond our understanding. God's ways are a complete mystery. His plan is utterly inscrutable. Not a very satisfying answer to say the least! Here's a simpler answer: an omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly Good God does not exist. When you pray to God, there is no one listening but yourself. Nature, uncaring, beautiful and terrible, is all there is..

  36. Bishop, I just have a question. (and also to others here who might help me)
    I know that both of the stories are analogies for in which it does not accurately represent the situation of our relationship with God.

    However, to the father and to his son, he had to bring his son to surgery for a reason that is also out of his hand, maybe for a disease or from an accident. But to God, the case is not the same. In God all things are possible, so I think if God can put us away from the possibility of pain why not? I'm just thinking, the child's father could have said, "if only you need not do this, you won't be," however, the father-and-son (also the boy-and-dog) are in a situation that is out of there control. I am not looking for a whole in the analogy, I just got curious about WHY? why be put in the situation of pain and suffering when there is a possibility wherein there is no suffering?

    I know that my ways are not God's ways.

  37. Sister Breige who was a holy but rather jovial Irish Nun with a great healing ministry and who had the gift of the blarney summed this up in a way by saying to God when she was going through a tough time 'If this is how you treat your friends no wonder you've not got many'

  39. The dog example is not silly, bishop, is brilliant in its simplicity. I know a lot of people who would never accept an articulate argument for suffering, but they would totally get an example with their own dogs.

  41. I was four when I began to read the Bible. Paradoxically, Isaiah 40 to 55 was my attraction, which includes Isaiah 53, describing the suffering of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I learned it by heart and recited it in our Romanian Baptist church when I was 4 or 5. Very satisfying testimony by bishop Barron. Yet, although I knew all that when I was 4 or 5 and now I am 72 plus, the promises – "Delight in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding and He will give you the desires of your heart" – left me flat & wondering if my learning brought about a "catharsis", better than what Aristotelis showed… Because my flesh – the old man – was not able to undergo any significant change… On the contrary, the initial momentum persisted… In a passage from the Bible, our heart is incredibly deceitful and beyond change… What is the "heart" alluded to in the memory quoted previously? Anyway, thank you, pastor Barron for taking these difficult subjects to expose (tackle). Could you be targeting these in future presentations or sermons? Thank you.

  45. You know, I was reminded of Cain and Abel today while with my sister. Could it be that God allows suffering because God is just in that he allows one to suffer to give others a chance to make the right choices and to grow from an experience? For I belive He does not give a soul more turmoil than can be endured. Like brother killing brother (Cain and Abel), one soul was ready to return while the other had made his time on Earth more difficult.

  46. I think Robert Barron is superb and what he teaches so grounded in the faith. This talk is very encouraging. However, I think of a friend whose father raped him when he was small and I am not sure how the fact that God’s ways are higher than ours, or the Vet analogy, would really help in that case. Trusting God is so damn difficult after going through intense trauma and pain, but we choose with our will to do so even though our feelings may take a lifetime to catch up.

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