There is nothing on earth more beautiful to see than suffering transmuted into love. To say that the bitter cup can be drunk heroically is no more than every brave man or woman knows already, but to say that one soul’s hurt and suffering can distill out life and strength and healing for others—that is the everlasting miracle.

“Yes,” someone will say, “but how am I to do it? I see now that suffering is not so much a problem to be explained as a challenge to be met, but how am I to meet it?”

The only answer that can ultimately suffice is God incarnate on a cross, facing there the worst that suffering and evil have ever done on the earth. For still he comes to us, this Christ victorious over all the mystery of suffering and evil, and offers to make his triumph ours.