To those who follow the prosperity preaching, a quote from John veltri SJ;

To those who follow the prosperity preaching, a quote from John veltri SJ;

Salvation is a deliverance, but not a deliverance from physical and mental anguish as such. It is a deliverance from arrogance and overweening self-confidence; it is a deliverance from the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves; it is a deliverance from fear, sometimes panic fear; it is a deliverance from thinking that our wholeness as persons depends on external circumstances; it is a deliverance from the illusion that people or property can, at least in our case, keep time and decay permanently at bay. Salvation is a deliverance from every form of self-preoccupation, self-reliance and self-righteousness which will prevent us from experiencing the mystery and call within our very being. It is the way of making us realistic, honest and ultimately whole.Often only when a person is forced to one's knees does one acknowledge that human autonomy has limits. Our resources are insufficient to make us absolute masters of our destiny. We shrink from intense suffering. Yet in suffering we encounter mystery and through mystery find meaning. This is not mere rhetoric for its own sake. No doubt, for some people, the conviction, that human life has resonances over and beyond what is visible and tangible, can come through the experience of intense love or startling human goodness. But for the majority of us it is through bitter suffering that we realize there is a power beyond our own. This unveils an order of things which is more extensive than the visible pattern of human affairs. It is in the moment of bitterest suffering that faith is born. This is the kind of faith involving personal conviction and commitment rather than mental adhesion to a set of beliefs not really part of our lives. Through suffering we acquire a sense of spaciousness. Far from being imprisoned within the confines of space and time, we suddenly realize that the whole story of our life is to stretch beyond the grave. The physical and mental limitations that anger us in our present situation are not to last forever. It is through suffering, which at first faces us as a blank wall, that we eventually discover the secret entrance into the pleasant garden of God's love, and taste for the first time a security which nothing short of God can supply. Through suffering we come to understand how human lives interlock and mysteriously influence each other. Jean Danielou's statement that suffering is the meeting point between good and evil begins to make sense. The possibility that the wicked are redeemable through the suffering of the good becomes a genuine conviction and motive of action. It is through suffering that all kinds of power and understanding which have lain dormant in us are released. "All sunshine", runs an Arab proverb, "makes a desert". Those who have not suffered lack a dimension. However much we shrink from it, without suffering we cannot become fully human. Salvation is the process through which we are given the power to achieve full humanity.

I picked this up from a contributor on a beliefnet forum. You are wise beyond your peers blessed Walking Eagles.

http://www.beliefnet.com/boards/message_list.asp?pageID=3&discussionID=514709&messages_per_page