The Purpose of Pain and the Dark Night

vil is evil and suffering can result from evil, but suffering is not evil. The purpose of pain and suffering can only be understood within the overall context of the purpose of the human person. The ultimate purpose of the human being is union with God. Suffering can be, is meant to be, something that moves us forward towards the divine destination, and it plays a crucial role at every stage of that journey. Pain and suffering can rouse us from our spiritual sloth and indifference so that we take our relationship with God and way we are living seriously. Once we are on the right path, suffering can prevent us from standing still, it keeps us moving forward toward God. Finally, suffering can empty us of all that has blocked God from filling our soul with himself. Therefore, the last leg of the journey, as St. John of the Cross describes it, is the Dark Night. Not Batman, but the Dark Night of the soul. (Sirach 2). We don’t have to wait until after death and purgatory to reach heaven. Heaven is transforming union with God and we are designed for transforming union here. At every moment God wants to flood our souls with His Divine Life. The problem is that we have BLOCKAGES! We have filled our soul with everything but God, things that need to be emptied out so that we may be filled perfectly by God. John of the Cross says  The more he wants to give, the more he makes us de sire - even to the point of leaving us empty in order to fill us with goods. You will be repaid for the goods…that you leave behind… Since the immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart, the Lord wants you to be alone. For he truly loves you with the desire of being himself all your company. Our soul is emptied of disordered attachments to be filled by God through two things: The Active purification; and the Passive purification We do our part to empty our soul of disordered loves and attachments by: Daily meditation and resolution, living a balanced life, frequent sacramental life, and meeting with a spiritual director. If you want to reach Heaven, do your part. We can only carry ourselves so far on this journey up the mountain to God. There is only so much we can do to purify our soul on our own from our disordered attachments. They are too deeply rooted, too hidden from our sight. But God Our Father knows exactly what we need to be purified and emptied so that we can be flooded by His life and be perfectly happy. This is when he allows the Passive Purification. If something occurs in your life that you did not choose, do not like, and cannot change, say yes to God even if you don't feel like it. This is where God, by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul has begun on its own but cannot complete on its own. That is why it is Passive but not In-Active b/c we cooperate by saying yes to God and by not escaping through any means available. John of the Cross describes the purification of The Dark Night using two images: In the purification of the senses, God is likened to a loving mother who first nurses her child, carries and caresses it in her arms, but who then must wean it, teach it both to walk on its own and to put aside the ways of childhood. In the other, the purification of the spirit, God's action is likened to fire working on and transforming a log of wood. In this process of purification which is painful we must allow God to lead. Our job is to say yes, and to accept the Lord's work with all its consequences. Our temptation will be to escape. The pain of body and soul is so great in the Dark Night that we would do almost anything to stop it. Resist this temptation. Keep your eyes fixed on the good you want – transforming union with God and the bliss of heaven on earth. Certainly do what is reasonable and moral to change what is evil or broken or diseased in your life, but do not try to escape those things you did not choose, do not like and cannot change.