6.25 Why do some have everything and others nothing? How can I live happily when they suffer? Can faith help to make sense of it all? Do I really need to convert?
God intended the world to be a good place, and he suffers whenever people are poor, sick, weak and suffering. All this came into the world because of our selfish and sinful choices, starting with the first people. We can make a true difference by sharing whatever we have with others. God needs you to make the world a better place!
God created you to be happy (Phil 4:4). The suffering of this life is not the end. Thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross a better life is waiting in heaven for those who are suffering now. That is a good reason to be happy, even when not everything is perfect yet. None of us personally is perfect: we all need conversion, turning back to God and the people we hurt time and time again.
What are the results of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross?
Jesus freely offered his life as an expiatory sacrifice, that is, he made reparation for our sins with the full obedience of his love unto death. This love “to the end” (John 13:1) of the Son of God reconciled all of humanity with the Father. The paschal sacrifice of Christ, therefore, redeems humanity in a way that is unique, perfect, and definitive; and it opens up for them communion with God [CCCC 122].
Why does Jesus call upon his disciples to take up their cross?
By calling his disciples to take up their cross and follow him Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who are to be its first beneficiaries [CCCC 123].
What is eternal happiness?
It is the vision of God in eternal life in which we are fully “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), of the glory of Christ and of the joy of the trinitarian life. This happiness surpasses human capabilities. It is a supernatural and gratuitous gift of God just as is the grace which leads to it. This promised happiness confronts us with decisive moral choices concerning earthly goods and urges us to love God above all things [CCCC 362].
We are in need of an ecological conversion… This conversion must be understood in an integral way, as a transformation of how we relate to our sisters and brothers, to other living beings, to creation in all its rich variety and to the Creator who is the origin and source of all life [Pope Francis, World Day of Peace, 1 Jan. 2020, 4].
