1 Corinthians 13:11-13
Faith, Hope, and Love
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Job 42:1-6
Job
1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
John 15:9-17
Jesus Will Make Our Joy Complete
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Suffering and pain are a part of life which God allows...And the question of why is often ask during pain and suffering...
When we are young we see things one way and when we age we might see the same things as a little or more differently with our earthly points of view and our earthly ways and thoughts...Or thinking has changed, because we have gained some knowledge and more experiences...This will be like when we leave earth and make our way to heaven...We might see things differently on earth if we saw all things, like God...Even pain and suffering as it happens...God has Complete Understanding...
God's LOVE and His Grace is everlasting and lasts an eternity, because He is outside of time...He has created the world, and knows all the experiences that are possible...He has created you...And He knows all things...As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and says that for now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then later we shall see God face to face and see the Complete Truth...Now I know in part about these earth and earthly things which I have seen and learned about; then later I shall know fully, what and why things have happened as they have happened...
So St. Paul tells us we will learn more through our faith and hopes...And in our suffering we are sometimes, if not many times confused with the idea of pain and suffering in linking them to faith and hope...I believe Job had this same issue...
Faith sets itself on God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit...Faith looks to hope to continue to believe in the Divine...And hope is a thing of the future...Hope is the anchor to our soul...Where God is Present, faith, hope, and LOVE are there...And of these great virtues, the greatest of these is love...When we are with God in the future, He will turn our faith into truth, our hopes into a more current joy and make our joy complete...God took the worst experience in history, the death of His Son on the cross and somehow turned that into good...
It is very hard to hand on during intense suffering...We see this joy and not understanding all things happen with Job as he clung to his faith and to his hopes toward the future, as he suffered tremendously...And when he felt the Presence of God, his faith had endured and his hope was now current and real in the Presence of God...Job got to feel the Presence of God during his suffering and that changed him...It made him better, and I believe he understood things a little better...Job felt this LOVE from God, just by God being there...He is the One who makes our Joy Complete...