2000 words 40 hrs
THE LOVE OF GOD AND AFFLICTION
Affliction is Different from Suffering
“In the realm of suffering, affliction is something apart, specific and irreducible. It is quite a different thing from simple suffering” (Weil 439).
Affliction is much more deeper and greater
Affliction is a part of soul and a mark of slavery
Three factors of affliction attack human’s soul:
Physical: affliction makes soul suffer from pain
Psychological: affliction is an uprooting of life, death, sense of guilt, humiliation
Social: affliction attacks soul from social degradation and the fear of it
Affliction is the enigma of human life
Not surprising: innocent people are killed, tortured and driven from their countries
Not surprising: diseases bring sufferings and deaths to human beings
Surprising: God has given and kept affliction in the world
Effects of Affliction on Human Life
“Affliction is something specific and impossible to compare with anything else, just as nothing can convey the idea of sound to the deaf and dumb” (Weil 441).
Compels a just man to cry out against God (442)
Causes God to be absent, more absent than a dead man (442)
Horribly submerges the whole soul / makes human lose half of the soul in salvery (442, 439)
Hardens and discourages human, stamps the soul to its very depths with scorn, disgust and self hatred (443)
Makes soul its accomplice by injecting a poison of inertia into it (443)
Establishes itself in human like parasite, directs a human for affliction’s purposes (444)
The Relationship Between God’s Love and Affliction
God is love
In God's love there is infinite nearness and infinite distance
Two forms of friendship: meeting and separation
Divine Love Triumphs Over Infinite Separation
“God created through love and for love. God did not create anything except love itself, and the means to love. He created love in all its forms. He created beings capable of love from all possible distances”(Weil).
Affliction is a sure sign that God wishes to be loved by us
It is perfectly obedient to God
Affliction occurs by chance, and the only choice humanity has is to keep or not to keep their eyes turned toward God
Love is is a kind of orientation, not a state of soul