Qualities of Suffering [Part 1] - Purgative

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As we read in the writings of the saints, we begin to understand more clearly the distinct fruits of suffering. These do not have to happen strictly successively, but can at times overlap, or at times occur all at once.

1.

Purgative. Suffering acts to purify and humble the soul. It is a crucible in which the impurities of our soul are unmasked and expelled. Suffering can be physical (such as illnesses), but can also be emotional (humiliation, persecution, etc.), and spiritual (dryness in prayer, temptations, etc.). This degree ^{[n.b., Purgative Way]} is the first  and most necessary step towards union with Our Lord. In this stage, the soul can be likened to a baby, which needs continual comfort and nurture from its parents. And just as a good father is quick in showering his child with many gifts, so too does our Father in heaven do to the young soul, to give it stregnth to be further purified by the fire of Divine Love. The more the soul trusts in God and is faithful, the more happy she will be in the midst of suffering, because suffering will them be elevated to a supernatural level, drawing tears of love, gratitude, and peace.
Whereas, those who are farther from God cannot understand this, because for them suffering brings nothing but misery and despair. This sweetness stirs up in the soul feelings of love, gratitude, compunction. Yet there will also be certain times when Our Lord removes even the consolations, so that the soul does not become too attached to the sweetness alone. As Thomas A. Kempis writes; “God wants you to learn to suffer tribulation without comfort and, submitting yourself entirely to Him, to grow in humility through tribulation. No one so deeply feels what Christ endured as one who has had to suffer as He did.” Saint John of the Cross believed that this stage was so necessary, that without a complete and total eradication of the appetites and self-will, a soul will never advance to higher degrees of holiness. He states; "One inordinate appetite alone....suffices to make the soul so captive, dirty, and unsightly, that until the appetite is purified, the soul is incapable of conformity with God in union. [...] It makes little difference whether a bird is tied down by a thread or by a chain. The bird will be held down just the same."