Why does a good God allow innocent animals and people to suffer?
We demand that God tell us why the innocent suffer. In Jesus cry on the Cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? we ask for an answer. But God gives us no abstract answer. Gods answer is the living Jesus, not an abstraction. Gods answer is to give us his own self in the person of his only begotten son. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him, to go as healers to the sufferers (including ourselves). Only as we take upon us the yoke of Jesus and love our neighbors as ourselves (or at least try to) do we come to realize that we do not need an abstract answer to the question of innocent suffering. We need a good Shepherd, a living God who loves his neighbors as he loves himself. Inasmuch as we are in Jesus and he is in us, we have communion with that God and are made ready by him for communion with all who suffer. There is healing in this communion, healing for both the sufferer and the healer. Please see my essay Christianity for a surprisingly short yet direct answer,
