Are we sure there is no merit in suffering as such?
Suppose two baptized infants were both to die before they reach the faintest use of reason, the one after enjoying good health and spirits and every luxury an unconscious baby-soul can possibly enjoy, the other after a precarious life of illness, pain, and privation; what certainty have we that the child of tears will not have greater joy in heaven than the other, which constantly beamed over with happy smiles?
-- Rev. Joseph Egger, SJ,
God and Human Suffering
