The Significance Of Human Suffering To Salvation In The Pauline Literature

This thesis delves into the teachings of St. Paul on Suffering and its significance to salvation. It discusses the concept of St. Paul on suffering that can be found in his different letters to the churches he formed during his missionary journey. It looks into how St. Paul finds the significance of sufferings to human suffering. The key sources of this study are the Letters of St. Paul that are found in the New Testament of the Bible. The discussion is divided into three parts. The first part is a textual analysis on the letters St. Paul had written about suffering. It was found out that St. Paul wrote about three circumstances of suffering throughout his work. St. Paul first talked about the sufferings of Jesus Christ while he was still here on earth. It is focus solely on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus or better known as Paschal Mystery. Second, St. Paul wrote about his personal sufferings. In preaching the Gospel he experienced various kinds of suffering. St. Paul suffered from the hardships on his journeys such as sickness, hunger, thirst, and without rest. He also experienced persecution from the people who are against the Gospel and the message of Salvation won for humanity by Jesus on the Cross. Third, St. Paul speaks about the sufferings that the Church had encountered during his time. These sufferings came mostly from the people who are against the faith and persecution is present in all of the churches St. Paul has formed. The Second Part of the discussion is about the role of suffering in the salvation of Mankind. In this part the focus is on the role of suffering in Salvation history. Human suffering was made as an instrument of the salvation of Man. It was found out that Jesus Christ used suffering as an instrument in saving the world. The salvation that was won by Christ for man was preached by St. Paul throughout his life. He gave witness to this message and he willingly suffered also for the sake of Jesus. He used his sufferings as an instrument to preach the gospel to all nations to Jews and Pagans alike. The Church on the other hand continued the preaching that was started by the apostles. This preaching bear fruit and it is now called as the Catholic Church. The church until now still upholds the teachings on suffering. She continually guides her children in their everyday suffering. She taught them that this suffering is there participation in the saving work of God that has started in their lives. The Third part of the discussion is about the significance of the human suffering in attaining salvation. It delves on how suffering has become significant on human salvation as taught by the Church. In conclusion, through suffering man was saved. It was through the suffering of Jesus on the Cross that we have gained salvation. Through that suffering he gave meaning to a seemingly meaningless suffering. Jesus gave suffering an important role in the life of Christians. The teachings of St. Paul were able to help humanity to look at suffering into a positive perspective. By this new perspective man is able to embrace suffering in their lives with meaning. The fear of suffering was removed from the mindset of the believers and it helped them to be more cheerful in their sufferings. Sufferings now is understood as an instrument to salvation not an unfortunate event towards meaninglessness and perdition. Through this kind of understanding man is able to live his life to the fullest without fear on the meaninglessness of sufferings in their lives.