Suffering In The Catholic Church

Suffering is an effect of original sin. “Suffering is the penal consequence of wilful disobedience to the law of God” (Catholic Encyclopedia: Evil). Pain can bring about two different ends, which depends on how one responds to his suffering, the Catholic Church teaches “God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil” (Catechism of The Catholic Church, 385). One of the effects of suffering is that one may make poor choices, which impact his life for the worse, in attempt to overcome their suffering. “Mental suffering, such as anxiety, disappointment, and remote, and the
He is able to express a true appreciation for beauty and he is able to charm nearly everyone he encounters. However, Sebastian deals with a heavy load of suffering that is derived from religion, and family. This suffering prompts Sebastian to go from a “beautiful, youthful, happy, and oblivious lad of nineteen to a depressed, alcoholic, self-loathing would-be caretaker of dying lepers” (Shmoop, Brideshead Revisited Summary). Sebastian is also described as, “Perpetually childishly melancholic” who “wallows in self-loathing when he is not loathing his mother and brother” (Shmoop, Brideshead Revisited Summary). Religion plays a big part in his constant self-loathing, “He takes the burden of religion upon himself bitterly, hating it with every step he walks. He tries to be very sinful, but since he cannot do so cheerfully, he returns to the Faith repeatedly much in the same way he returns to the bottle” (Trad, The Rad. A Watchful Novel: The Players of Brideshead Revisited). He is addicted to the faith, and despises his inability to be rid of it, “There is some inner turmoil that we can never quite discern in Sebastian, some spiritual drama that we cannot see, but desperately wish we could” (Shmoop, Brideshead Revisited Summary). Sebastian’s early abandonment by his father contributes to his homosexual tendencies that are hinted at throughout the book; these are shown , especially, in his relationship
“The Flyte family is seen through the eyes of Charles Ryder, an atheist, to whom at first their religion is incomprehensible and quite unimportant” (Charles Ryder, Julia Flyte and the Operation of Grace in Brideshead Revisited). Charles Ryder is a young man; in his days at Oxford, he met Sebastian Marchmain and is gradually introduced to the Marchmain family of Brideshead. He becomes an architectural painter and marries the sister of another Oxford friend, but his ties to the Marchmain family persist, and later he falls in love with Sebastian’s sister Julia, who is also already married. They plan to divorce their spouses and marry each other, and for a while, they live together. However, Julia returns to her Catholic faith at last, and she gives up Charles. Charles’s suffering is derived from a lack of a family and good childhood memories and, therefore, much of his time spent with Sebastian is spent replacing a lack of happy childhood memories. "That summer term with Sebastian, it seemed as though I was being given a brief spell of what I had never known, a happy childhood" (Goodreads, A quote from Brideshead Revisited) Furthermore, Charles dysfunctional relationship with his father also prompts him to pursue a homosexual relation with Sebastian; one may argue that Charles falling in love with Julia was due to her similarities to Sebastian. This could also explain why Sebastian’s communication with Julia