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APPROACHING SUFFERING THROUGH THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF FAITH IN GOD
Abstract
Man is body and soul, and suffering can be lived as pain of the body or pain of the soul, related to a psychological or a spiritual state. God does not want man's suffering, yet it penetrated in man's life as a consequence of the ancestral sin and of the wrong use of freedom by our ancestors Adam and Eve. The Holy Fathers of the Church, having gone through suffering, teach that man should not be concerned mainly by the natural causes of suffering or the means to heal a disease, but should first of all try to analyze the aim of the test arrived through the respective suffering, to identify the spiritual sense of suffering in the framework of his relationship with God and to ponder on the positive aspects of suffering that lead to salvation. For this reason, suffering can contribute to man's inner purification and can constitute a means of spiritual renewal because man, depending on his spiritual landmarks, may or may not assume suffering, and may or may not discover its spiritual meaning.
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References14
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