The cross reminds us that there is no true love without suffering, there is no gift of life without pain.
It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.
We can learn from him that suffering and the gift of himself is an essential gift we need in our time.
The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. The Church is one of those living forces.
[The atheist believes] a world marked by so much injustice, innocent suffering, and cynicism of power cannot be the work of a good God.
