Why hasnt Google saluted, say, Mother Teresa...?Maybe they can't shake the prayer breakfast (was she stunning or what?) http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/PRBKMTER.TXT
She gets into areas I can’t necessarily grok, but it doesn’t mean I won’t ever do so. Anyhow, yes suffering has good reasons. Not so certain about literal “kiss of Jesus” — I don’t quite go for what I believe is a Roman Catholic model that every single instance of human suffering is for the sake of redeeming someone else as Christ literally DID redeem the world by taking on the suffering due it — but as I understand it, it is allowed as a lesson by a loving God that wants us in our current ignorance to get an emphasis upon the point that mere earth will bitterly disappoint us sooner or later. And sometimes He does it well before He reveals the reason why. And so we are glad in the end that we were thus reminded.
And yes, patient bearing with suffering (and recovery from past suffering) can have a positive redemptive effect upon those around. So in a sense I can grok it. Mother Teresa seems to have been more for gut sense than she was for explanations. I go for explanations, but that’s because God gifted me with a mind that desires them, which is a good thing.
Anyhow, I might have told the cancer sufferer that Christ was available and there to bear HER suffering, and that she should gladly roll that suffering onto Christ, He wants to bear that burden for her. Sometimes digging too deep into the mystical can leave everyone else just puzzling and un-benefited. Not to cast aspersions of course on this fantastically loving lady, and even our missteps God will redeem when we yield them to Him.