But where does human privation (evil and sin) come from? There are two types of human evil. Evil Suffered is a privation which an individual undergoes for which he is not personally responsible. (e.g. being born congenitally blind is a passive evil suffered.) Evil suffered also includes things that happen to people as a result of the actions or inactions of other people, an active evil that comes from the outside that causes damage. A bicycle rider run over by an inattentive driver would be evil suffered by the bike rider. On the other hand, Evil Done is active evil [sin], a free choice done with intent. It equates to sin or a fault within a person. Evil done is the intended consequences of a murderer or rapist, for example. It is fault done by one human to another. One suffers evil from the one committing evil. Evil done causes evil suffered. One causes fault and the other receives the fault caused. This fault, sin or evil distorts relationships between the parties, family members and God. Every human privation is an evil suffered or an evil done. God is not the cause of these natural and human privations, unlike many who think that suffering is willed by God. The doctrine of Divine Retribution is error.
If evil suffered and evil done does not come from God or nature, then it must come from the evil one himself, the devil. We know that evil exists in this world. Just look at the actions of men like Hitler, Stalin, and Ted Bundy. If God is all good and created humans in his likeness, then humans are all good at birth. There must exist something in this world that turns man into a capacity to commit evil. Just as God acts in the spiritual world, so does evil. Evil can take possession of human beings, either totally and completely or in varying degrees and durations. If evil works in spirit, then we can only assume that God’s goodness also works in spirit, the Holy Spirit. And God’s spirit is active just as the evil spirit is active. It will either totally conquer someone or come and go in degrees and in varying durations. In our example, we could say that Hitler was completely invaded by the evil spirit and it remained with him until his final judgment of eternal hell at his death. Conversely, Mother Theresa was completely possessed by the Holy Spirit. She gave her entire life for the poor in India and around the world. She may have had short periods of doubt about her mission in life and therefore the Holy Spirit may have temporarily evaded her, but we can be assured that any tests this life handed her were completely resolved at her death. She, if anyone, skipped purgatory and went directly to heaven.
Natural and human privations lead to human suffering. “Suffering is, in itself, an experience of evil. But Christ has made suffering the firmest basis of the definitive good, namely the good of eternal salvation. By his suffering on the Cross, Christ reached the very roots of evil, of sin and death. He conquered the author of evil, Satan, and his permanent rebellion against the Creator. (Sin is conquered by Christ’s obedience and Death, by His resurrection).To the suffering brother or sister Christ discloses and gradually reveals the horizons of the Kingdom of God: the horizons of a world converted to the Creator, of a world free from sin, a world being built on the saving power of love. And slowly but effectively, Christ leads into this world, into this Kingdom of the Father, suffering man, in a certain sense through the very heart of his suffering. For suffering cannot be transformed and changed by a grace from outside, but from within. And Christ through his own salvific suffering is very much present in every human suffering, and can act from within that suffering by the powers of his Spirit of truth, his consoling Spirit…The answer which comes through this sharing, by way of the interior encounter with the Master, is in itself something more than the mere abstract answer to the question about the meaning of suffering. For it is above all a call. It is a vocation. Christ does not explain in the abstract the reasons for suffering, but before all else he says: "Follow me!". Come! Take part through your suffering in this work of saving the world, a salvation achieved through my suffering! Through my Cross. Gradually, as the individual takes up his cross, spiritually uniting himself to the Cross of Christ, the salvific meaning of suffering is revealed before him. He does not discover this meaning at his own human level, but at the level of the suffering of Christ. At the same time, however, from this level of Christ the salvific meaning of suffering descends to man's level and becomes, in a sense, the individual's personal response. It is then that man finds in his suffering interior peace and even spiritual joy…It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else, makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption. In that "cosmic" struggle between the spiritual powers of good and evil, spoken of in the Letter to the Ephesians(89), human sufferings, united to the redemptive suffering of Christ, constitute a special support for the powers of good, and open the way to the victory of these salvific powers.” APOSTOLIC LETTER, SALVIFICI DOLORIS, Pope JOHN PAUL II, 1984.