If I'm Suffering, Is It Better Never to Be Born?

The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Ascension

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.9 • 7.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The question of evil, suffering and brokenness in our world can be a hard one to grapple with. Sometimes, when we're in a place of darkness, the question can arise, "Would it be better if I had never been born?"

Today, Fr. Mike tackles these incredibly tough questions and offers some insights into why God created you, and why it is good that you exist.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Why did God make this world with so much suffering, with so much evil, with so much pain?
0:05.9	Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. So a big question that people will
0:10.1	ask on a regular basis, if even people who like, no, I believe that God exists, I believe that
0:17.7	He made all of this, that they'll still ask the question, why? Why are we here? Why are we?
0:25.6	Not just where we hear what's the purpose of life, but like, okay, I'm looking around this world
0:29.9	and I see a lot of brokenness, I see a lot of evil, I see a lot of suffering, I see a lot of pain.
0:37.6	Why? And I know God made this. Why? You know, St. Thomas Aquinas, when he, I mean, he's written a massive
0:43.5	amount of stuff and has really good answers to almost every, every question about God's existence,
0:50.5	about the reality of evil and sin and grace and mercy and he says that the problem of evil is,
0:59.6	is a real problem. Essentially, I'm paraphrasing, of course, St. Thomas Aquinas said that much
1:03.2	more eloquently than I just did, that it is a real problem. If God is all good and all loving and
1:12.4	all powerful, then why, why all this, all this brokenness? So let's, let's start from the beginning
1:20.0	here for a little bit. Recognition is, if you believe God exists, if you believe in the
1:25.6	Judeo-Christian vision of God as he's revealed himself through the scriptures and as he's
1:30.0	revealed himself in Jesus and through the church, you'll know that God has revealed himself as good,
1:35.9	right? God has revealed himself as just. He's revealed himself in not even just good and just
1:41.2	just. He's revealed himself as love. In fact, Jesus reveals that God is love itself. God,
1:47.5	the very nature of God is God is love. The Trinity of persons, a communion of persons,
1:51.6	Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is good. He's just, he's even more than just good and just.
1:56.1	He is love. Okay, so and also he's powerful. He is actually the foundation of all being. There's
2:01.6	literally nothing that God can't do, right? God is not just the strongest being in the universe.
2:05.8	He's not like Superman or like four in the space here. He just has to be almost powerful,
	...

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