I would posit that the reason there is suffering in the world is that our fallen human nature predisposes us to it.

After all, Satan tempted Adam and Eve, and, without going down too many rabbit holes as to reasons why they did it, their actions offended God so greatly that His punishment was to put suffering in the world.

The Incarnate Word stepped into the breach to offer the only atonement acceptable to our offended Father. Humankind was redeemed insofar as each soul now has the opportunity for salvation. As St. Paul says, God wills the salvation of each one of us. Note that St. Paul does not say that Christ's suffering removed our part in sin. As St. Athanasius preached: God created us without us but He will not save us without us.

Poor Job of the Old Testament was afflicted with every sort of suffering physical, mental, and emotional because Satan was so certain that a man of his means could love God only because God gave him so much.

Through it all Job never gave up his faith. He might have wondered, but he never stopped praising God in spite of his afflictions.

So what of suffering in this post-modern world? Nothing has changed. Our fallen human nature really requires us to trust in God, His Providence, and be humble enough to accept that we are needy souls.

Suffering is a means of acquiring grace, which is needed for salvation. God did not remove St. Paul's "thorn" no matter how much he pleaded for it to be taken away. Instead he learned that the "thorn" not only kept him humble before God, but it also opened him to graces he might never have received had he not put up with that suffering.

It is so terribly sad that we in the world today are so judgmental of others when sadness and suffering afflict them--especially those we love.

Thanks for the read.