Why God Allows Suffering

And why is it so hard? I guess it's hard, there is a positive aspect and a negative aspect to it. Maybe, so I don't talk a lot, but maybe the positive aspect is to make me a stronger person, perhaps. If everything was easy going, I'd never learn, I'd never progress, I'd never be a stronger person.

So maybe I need those hard times. Maybe I need those dark tunnels that come my way and go through. I need them because they are good for my well-being, for my growth, for my strength.

Maybe those dark tunnels will lead me to God more than the light. Maybe the failures make me a better person than successes. Maybe failures will teach me more wisdom than successes.

And this is why I should never be the person to define what is right and what is wrong, to define what is good and what is bad, to define what is easy and what is difficult or hard. I need to leave that to God to define it for me. Because what I see is bad, maybe God is saying, this is the only good thing that has ever come your way.

God, why do I have this person in my life? Why did you bring this situation in my life? Why did this happen to me, God? Why? Why? This why is the most commonly used word in our vocabulary. Why? Because we are trying to find out why. And since we are not able to fathom it, we come back and say, I'm not happy with my life.

I don't want it. I reject it. Why are you doing this to me, God? Maybe perhaps we will never know fully on earth, but definitely we'll know why when we go to heaven.

The psalmist King David says, it is the wicked who made my path straight unto you, Lord. It was the wicked, not the saints, not the holy. It was the wicked people.

Those people who gave me hell all my life were the ones who made a man out of me or a saint out of me. A saint out of me. Padre Pio, 50 years he was persecuted by his own church.

50 years persecuting him left, right and center, pushing him aside, persecuting him, stopping him from his priestly services. You cannot talk to people anymore. You cannot talk confessions or take their confessions.

You cannot perform your priestly duties no more. They locked him and he endued and endued and endued for 50 years. He was 84 about to leave this world on his last breath.

There was an oxygen cylinder that was helping him because the lungs were gone. He could not breathe on his own. They were gone.

And this bishop kept haunting him and standing on top of his head and saying, tell me are these wounds real? Are they from Christ or from Satan? Padre Pio, when you watch his movie, he said one thing at the end of the movie, this is what I grasped from the entire movie. It's not a movie, it's his life. What was done is a movie.

But he lived and even more than what was actually shown in the movie. One thing that is engraved in me till the day I go to the grave. When the bishop asked him, who are you? Padre Pio's reply was, I wish I know who I am because my dear friend, I am the greatest mystery to my own self.

I don't know who I am. Wow. Now this is a talk of a saint.

You know why? Because when you get closer and closer and closer to the Lord Jesus, one thing definitely you will not know yourself anymore. You know why? Because the Lord says, you need to die into your old self. And when you die to your old self, how are you going to recognize a dead person anymore? Wow.

Padre Pio, that is a saintly talk. That on its own is a saintly talk. I am a mystery to my own self.

Amazing. Amazing. Because he did not understand why.

Why is it so hard Lord? I don't know. All I know is I want to be with you at the end. You know.

Therefore I trust in the one who is omnipresent, omniscient, the almighty God that knows everything and everyone and is the creator of all. I trust you. I leave that definition for you Lord.

I will not even try to define it. Because I don't know. Because I don't know, you know Lord.

Life is hard. But in a more simple way, when we look now, you know why life has become even harder in our time? One thing, materialism has engulfed humanity. And the other thing, technology.

Technology. We are at home, we are messaging each other at home. The son is in the room, the mother in the kitchen, the father in the backyard.

Oh yes, are you coming? Where are you? Go and talk to them. Why are you sending messages face to face? Talk to them. So that human encounter, that personal encounter, that physical encounter became less and less and less and less.

You see, I don't need to sit in the car and drive an hour or half an hour to see them. FaceTime them brother. Press of a button.

What are you doing? I see you. Or now, it's even better. You go to Paramount of Westfields, you buy a brand, bag, whatever.

What are they called? Gucci, Voucher, I don't know what they're called. I don't know, whatever they are. Oh, I bought Chanel.

And then you take a snapshot and you put it there. And you send it to your friend and I just bought a brand. Five grand for this bag.

I won't even pay five bucks. I paid $5,000 for one little bag and there are 5,000 people starving in the world. We have forgotten we are human.

We became programmed machines, robots. No feelings, no emotions. This is why we are swimming against the current.

When somebody wants to be nice, they face challenges because there is a thousand voices opposing you. You are looking the black sheep. You are the odd one out of the whole crowd.

We need to come back and stop being enslaved to materialism. Even our weddings, all our social activities became competitions. You know, my friend has a double story house.

How can I live in a single house? That is an absolute embarrassment. I cannot accept living in a single story house and my friend lives in a double story. You better build me a bigger mansion than that.

You better get me a more expensive car than that. You better get me a more expensive diamond ring than that. And what is happening? We became chasing our tails just like the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.

They run around, run around for forties without getting to the promised land because the aim was not God. The aim was all about me, me, me, me. And then me killed me in the desert of this world.

We chase vanity, absolute emptiness. I am not saying don't have a house. I am not saying don't have a comfortable life.

But what I am saying, share it with others. Don't be greedy. Someone has billions of dollars in the bank account.

When will they have the time to eat at all? Never. The richest man in the world, how much can they eat? When they go to lunch, do they eat gold nuggets? Fish, fries, hamburger, subway, steak. How much are you going to eat? When this is full, that's it.

Why you have all the billions there? Go and do a charitable deed. Go and feed those starving souls out there. Where is the humanity in us? Where is it? We've made it hard on ourselves because Mammon became the God of the century, not the true God.

The Lord Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters. You cannot worship two. It is either God or money.

And Saint Paul says, the love of money is the root of all evil. See, Saint Paul didn't say money is evil. No, he said the love of money.

Because whenever you love something or someone more than God, that thing or that someone becomes your God. Because love was meant to be given to the true God who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth first, then to others. Love is supposed to be given to God, then to others.

When you love someone more than the Lord, He is your God. When you love money more than the Lord, the money is your God. It is the love that determines where your heart is.