True Joy

It is possible to endure suffering with joy.  True joy comes from the Holy Spirit through our souls.  The Holy Father recently distinguished between joy and "happiness": 

We should strive for joy, If one tries to be happy all the time, he said, that happiness ends up "transforming itself into lightness, superficiality and leads to a state of lacking Christian wisdom; it can make us fools, dupes, no?"

"Joy is something else. Joy is a gift from the Lord. It fills us from the inside," the pope said.

The joy the Lord gives cannot be "bottled up so we can keep it with us," he said. "If we want this joy just for ourselves, in the end it will make us sick and our hearts will shrivel up and our faces will not transmit that great joy, but nostalgia, that melancholy that isn't healthy."

Joy naturally leads to generosity, he said.

Pope Francis said joy is a "pilgrim virtue," one that moves Christians to journey out into the world preaching the Gospel and proclaiming Christ.

Joy, he said, "is one of the virtues of the great," of those who don't allow themselves to get caught up in silly little annoyances or in "little things inside the community of the church; they always look to the horizon."

POPE FRANCIS 

“What is this joy? Is it to be happy? No, it is not the same. To be happy is good, yet joy is something more. It’s another thing. It is something which does not depend on external motivations, or on passing issues: it is more profound. It is a gift. To be 'happy' at all moments at all cost, can at the end turn into superficiality and shallowness. This leaves us without Christian wisdom, which makes us dumb, naive, right? All is joy... no. Joy is something else; it is a gift from the Lord.” 

 

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Heaven

Heaven is dying to self and opening up completely to God being born again from above.  The sufferings we endure in life helps us do this.  Therefore, suffering in this way can be a good thing. 

It is generally presumed, at least among those who believe in God and the afterlife, that everyone naturally wants to go to heaven.

But of course, “Heaven” is usually understood in a sort of self-defined way. In other words heaven is a paradise of my own design, the place is perfect as I think perfect should be. Yes, for most people, their conception of heaven is merely what they think it should be, and this usually includes things like: golf courses, seeing my relatives and friends, there are my own self-selected pleasures, and the absence of struggles such as losing a job or saying farewell.

 

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Real Maturity

God allows struggle, suffering and evil so we can grow and mature spiritually.  Pope Francis recently stated:

“A life without challenges does not exist and any boy or girl who doesn’t take on these challenges, has no backbone.” Pope Francis said this at the end of the Rosary, emphasising the fact that “a good mother” helps her children to understand what freedom is.

“Of course, it is not about doing anything one feels like, allowing oneself to be overcome by passions, going from experience to another without thinking and following the fashions of the time; freedom does not mean throwing everything we do not like out of the window so to speak.”

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Do Not Be Discouraged!

The enemy tries to reduce us to a state of total discouragement, so says the founder of the Jesuit order St. Ignatius Loyola.  What causes all our fear and weakness is dwelling excessively on our miseries and submitting to the enemies lying suggestions.  We must observe the enemy's offensive.

In Christ on the other hand, we find encouragement!  We should live therefore according to the hope of Christ, knowing with faith that all will work out.

Stay close to Christ, suffering will not last forever.

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Shame

Sometimes our shame and guilt cause undo suffering, but it shouldn't.  Shame can make us humble and more receptive to the Lord while guilt can help us overcome sin and live holy lives. 

Pope Francis recently addressed the issue.

“We are often ashamed to tell the truth, but shame is a true Christian virtue, and even human,” he commented.

“I do not know if there is a similar saying in Italian, but in our country those who are never ashamed are called ‘sin vergüenza,’” he said in his April 29 homily.

“This means ‘the unashamed’ because they are people who do not have the ability to be ashamed. And to be ashamed is a virtue of men and the women who are humble,” he added.

Pope Francis taught that being ashamed of sins is “not only natural, it’s a virtue that helps prepare us for God's forgiveness.”

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