“WHY does God allow suffering?” What a complex question to attempt an answer within just 260 words. All the great religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism agree with the Christian stance, which regards suffering as an inescapable element of human existence. Should we then re-phrase the question, and instead ask, “Can God help us bear our suffering?” The Bible explains that Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully human at the same time, ‘the Messiah,’ born to fulfil the old scriptures, and to bring us a ‘new covenant’ enabling God’s Kingdom to be accessible to all. Jesus also had a predestined mission to suffer a hideously painful and degrading death on the cross. He bore this unimaginable suffering for each one of us, so we may have an eternal afterlife, in which we are promised an end to suffering. God the Father’s message to us, through his son Jesus, is that God will walk beside us via his Holy Spirit, and that he will carry us through our suffering until we eventually meet him face to face in paradise. So how does this help us now, as we suffer so terribly in our daily lives? Faith is a deeply personal matter, and we are given free will to choose what we accept and believe. Whilst other faiths may have a different answer, Christianity assures us that although God does not eliminate all suffering, he will certainly help us to carry our burden, and all we have to do is open our heart to him.

Kevin Turpin, St Oswald’s Church, Kirkoswald, near Penrith