Pope John is a wonderful example.
but pain is also physiological and what I am saying is we don’t know what kind of pain this man was in...probably not a papercut.
I am always amazed at how people can infer what another human suffers. I certainly have no idea what this man and his family went through. I don’t know if given a terminal illness of years of endless excruciating pain I would be so noble and say “well, pain is just pain.”
I am not so sure that ALL pain can be “dispelled” as long as one knows it has a righteous purpose.
I believe that the church has every right to decide who gets a catholic funeral or gravesite...but I also believe our only goal is to be merciful to this man’s suffering.Who am I to say this man was “eveling in his delicious self pity.”?
I tried to distinguish pain from suffering as two very different things.
Pain is physical, objective and real. It can be treated with medicine or not, and it is there whether one is stoic or sensitive to it. It can indeed be both protracted and agonizing.
Suffering in not just enduring pain, it is reveling in it. It is assigning to it values like consciousness, or luck, or infliction by magical forces. It is frequently reminding those about you that you have pain and must be sympathized with because of it. That they must assist and abide you, and give you consideration because you have pain. It is making pain something that it is not.
And while people frequently equate pain with suffering, it is a poor comparison. Pain is normal and objective. Suffering brings out the worst of a person’s ego and self pity.
Pain makes life unpleasant, but suffering makes people want to commit suicide.
What do you mean by "our?" You are obviously not a practicing Catholic, sobwho are you to insinuate yourself into "our" goals?