Have you ever struggled through something, then looked back and realized the value in that specific experience of suffering? I am a relatively new convert to the Faith, and the concept of suffering as a means to something good can be quite foreign and difficult to understand for someone who grew up outside of the Church.

During a time of suffering, I usually find myself wondering: Why? Why me? Why does it have to be this way? And as difficult as it is to understand, the answer to those questions is that God loves me more than I know.

Even further, God the Father loves all of us that way. God loved Jacob and all of his brothers. He loved Reuben. He loved the Ishmaelites, who bought Jacob for twenty pieces of silver. He loved the people of Egypt. He also loved the chief priests and the Pharisees more than any of us can comprehend. In the parable from the Gospel reading for today, the vineyard owner kept sending servants to the tenants, who kept killing and beating them up. In the end, the vineyard owner sent his own son. God sent His prophets and eventually His beloved, only begotten Son to be on Earth with us, knowing what would happen, because He loves us.

I speak from experience when I say that it is easy to condemn some of the people in the accounts of both the Old and New Testaments. Jacob’s brothers did something terrible when they sold him into slavery. The people who crucified Jesus acted to complete the most horrible event that has ever happened. Those specific actions should be condemned, because they are evil, but each and every human being is a beloved son or daughter of God the Father. We are called to choose to will the good of every single person, regardless of what they do, because God does that for us.

Indeed, God does not cause evil things to happen, but God brings good things out of those bad situations. He loves every single one of us dearly, even when we do something really bad. At the same time, it is still difficult to understand the concept of the most difficult, arduous, and upsetting parts of our lives becoming the most beneficial for us in the end. Maybe it is okay for that to remain a mystery for now.