Most people would agree that the number one reason that people don’t believe in God is the problem of pain and suffering. Well, what do Christians say to answer such a hard question? For one, God understands suffering. Two, God can bring good out of suffering. The best example: the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Chris, true God and true man.

So, King David suffered like Christ. Yet, not the way I imagined when I read a psalm from him today.

Psalm 35 starts off saying: “Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me… For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life.”

Now, on to verse 13 and following: “But I, when they were sick – I wore sackcloth. I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed head bowed on my bosom, as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; I went about as one who laments his mother, bowed down and in mourning.”

Wow. David mortifies himself for the sake of his enemies’ health.

Next verse, 15: “But at my stumbling they gathered in glee, they gathered together against me.“

How is David a man after God’s own heart? God shows compassion and love in his suffering for the sake of the world. He suffers for you and me.

The number one thing that makes people question God is the one thing he uses to show true love for humanity. He understands suffering. He uses it to bless others.

So, here comes the real question: do Christians believe in penance to offer God on behalf of other people?

Christians are taught to pray for one another. The saints in Heaven intercede for us before the throne of God. Why would we not do penance or offer up something for another person? Are we not men and women after God’s own heart? Is it not in giving that we receive?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – Jesus Christ, our Lord (John 13:34-35).

Don’t be afraid to offer prayers and mortifications on behalf of someone else. It is good for you as well as your neighbor.

Catholic Encyclopedia: One of the methods which Christian asceticism employs in training the soul to virtuous and holy living. The term originated with St. Paul, who traces an instructive analogy between Christ dying to a mortal and rising to an immortal life, and His followers who renounce their past life of sin and rise through grace to a new life of holiness. “If you live after the flesh”, says the apostle, “you shall die, but if through the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live” (Romans 8:13; cf. also Colossians 3:5, and Galatians 5:24). From this original use of the term, we see that mortification, though under one aspect it is a law of death, under another and more fundamental aspect it is a law of life, and does not destroy but elevates nature. What it slays is the disease of the soul, and by slaying this it restores and invigorates the soul’s true life.

“Mortification.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 6 Feb. 2010 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10578b.htm>.