Suffering

            "Why Is There So Much Evil In The World" and "Why Does God Tolerate Suffering?" by Pope John Paul II in "Crossing over threshold of Hope" are two chapters centered around the issues of evil and suffering. The chapters express man's questionable faith in God's existence for the reason that there is endless suffering in the world.
             Paul begins with evil in the world," How to continue to trust in a God who is supposed to be merciful Father, in a God who --- as the New Testament reveals --- is meant to be Love itself, when suffering, injustice, sickness and death seem to dominate the larger history of the worlds as well as our smaller daily lives?" . (Page 60) He poses this question of doubt because he does not understand how any God could permit wars, concentration camps, Holocaust, and other horrific events.
             Paul wonders if God is love by asking questions that wonders why God allows evilness in the world. For example "Doesn't God place too many burdens on the shoulders of individuals?" and "Doesn't He leave man alone with these burdens, condemning him to a life without hope?".
             (Both from pages 61). Paul points other problems leading to a dreary picture of the world, including issues of illness, handicapped children, and humans denied ordinary happiness on earth. He declares that others have expressed same questions in there literatures, such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, and Albert Camus.
             Paul states that God created man as rational and free, thereby placing Himself under man's judgments (page 61). However, man continually attempts to judge God throughout history. The Old Testament Book of Job is the example of these judgments. .
             The crucifixion of Christ for humanity's salvation with the was a big issue. Was it truly necessary to place his son, Christ to death? Paul ask "Could it have been different" and "Could God have justified Himself before human history, so full suffering, without placing Christ's Cross at the center of that history?(page 62) Paul stated that many could say that God does not need to justify Himself to man.