Dear J.,

Let me address the question of why suicide doesn't solve any problem. The short answer is:

Because there is still plan for your life that has been specifically carved out for you.

I definitely empathize with where you are coming from. I've struggled with unemployment for a long period of time. It can be difficult in many ways and you can wonder why He isn't helping you if: You are on His Team. You didn't tell us if you belonged to any faith so I'll assume you are an agnostic.

Let me share with you the Catholic view of suffering that accompanies major set backs and disappointments we have in life. We have to first start with the understanding that our existence here on earth has a definite purpose, even though there may not appear to be a purpose or a reason in our current situation.

For someone without a religious view of life, it can seem like God, at times, doesn't appear to care about people or certain situations.

That said, none of us can explain the mystery of why horrific events happen like:

• children being hacked to death or poisoned with sarin gas in Syria
  
• the 15,000 ordinary Japanese people who drowned in the Fukashima Tsunami
• the tornadoes in Oklahoma.
• the floods in New York and Louisiana, or
• the fires in Colorado
  

What we do know, is that:

1. God never allows something to happen, that a greater good won't be pulled out of. We may not see that good right now, or ever, but it will come.
   
   That includes your current situation, and
   
   
2. Because only good and holiness radiate from God, He will only take us at our highest state of goodness or holiness.
   

As Christians, we see both the visible and invisible realties at play, meaning, not only the immediate family and friends around us but the angelic and demonic angels we can't see.

• The angelic ones will guide our thoughts to follow that good plan the Lord has for our life that was made specifically for us.
  
  
• The demonic will want us to ignore this plan totally. The voice of the demonic is always despair or there is no hope, when in reality there is always hope. We — and you — just have to persevere through the suffering.

This posting on God's permissive will and His divine will may help. It also talks about people's individual free will to do dumb things.

• How do I reply in a Christian manner to someone who is angry with God saying He doesn't exist?
  

Despite what you think, God is madly in love with you:

• even when you are suffering a lot He is there suffering with you.
  
• even when you are sinning, like we all occasionally do, He is still madly in love with you.
  

This is what the Catechism states on suicide:

This Apostolic Letter by Pope St. John Paul II On The Christian Meaning Of Human Suffering may also help.

Screw the demonic voices in your life. I recommend you find a Catholic priest and share with him your struggles. He can probably find some good people who can help and assist you in your current situation.

I hope this helps,

Mike

Dear J.,

While it's a woefully inadequate analogy, there are many things that a parent does and allows to happen for the good of their child that the child does not understand. The child may even come to think that the parent hates them because they won't allow this or that or because they allow this or that to happen. The parent is thinking on a much higher plane that the child simply cannot understand. They think it's torture, but it isn't, it's for their greater good. So it is with God. How far above our ways are His ways!

It's also important to realize that this life is not the only life there is. This life is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to all eternity, and so will this life's sufferings. Romans 8:18 says,

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

And 2 Corinthians 4:17 says,

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."

Our sufferings, if we patiently endure them, are for our greater glory. This is hard to fathom and I have to concede that I usually don't live out these verses in my life, but there it is.

• Ten thousand years from now when you and I are, God willing, experiencing the glory of Heaven, will these sufferings make a difference, except insofar as they've allowed us to become more like God and enjoy Heaven all the more?

If you think God is punishing you, remember, "the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone He accepts as his son." (Hebrews 12:6) Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His child.

• For what children are not disciplined by their father?

If you are not disciplined — and everyone undergoes discipline — then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it.

How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!

They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His Holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.

“Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed."

(Hebrews 12:6-13)

It might be helpful for you to read the book of Job in the Old Testament. Job suffered much and God finally appeared to him and addressed Job's questions.

There is a custom in Catholicism of offering our sufferings as a sacrifice to God for our own sins and for the sins of the world, for our growth in holiness. This means patiently enduring them for the sake of a greater good, and accepting them as something that can benefit us or others.
It's a good thing to practice.

Don't commit suicide, though, because it cuts short your growth in holiness and shows contempt for the life and gifts God has given you. When you are struggling, just pray,

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner,"

or even just,

"Lord, have mercy."

God does indeed love you, and He proved it not only by disciplining you, but by sending His Son to die for you on the Cross. He suffered terrible torture so that your sins and my sins might be forgiven. He suffered even more than you or I have and He asked us to take up our Cross as well, and follow him (Matthew 16:24).

I invite you to do the same.

Eric