Recollection based on Dom Hubert van Zeller's Approach to the Crucified

• First principle: “God tells man what is needed for happiness.” God has constructed us; He has constructed us perfectly. He made us for happiness, but He made us for a happiness that can only be achieved on His terms. We have no power to change our user’s manual.
• Second principle: “God does not condemn man to suffering; man condemns himself to suffering.” “In refusing God’s terms man condemns himself to unhappiness.” We humans have introduced a new element into God’s order, an element of opposition, an element of conflict, an element of rebellion.
• Third principle: Man’s disorder cannot defeat God’s goodness. God can both allow men to be evil and use their evil for good. It is not the will of God to get rid of suffering, because He cannot eliminate it without eliminating free will. What He does is enable those who wish to follow His order to be happy in suffering. This is the happiness to which we are called.