I
WHAT IS PAIN?
To experience something undesirable feeling in our body is pain.
To prolong this pain is suffering.
Suffering, if accepted wholeheartedly, is sacrifice.
(suffering, if not accepted, is torture)
If the sacrifice costs ones life, it is martyrdom.
II
Pain per se, has no meaning in life. It is Christ who made it relevant, through his self - sacrifice on the cross. That is for our salvation.
If Christ would not have risen from the dead, people would not be able to endure pain and suffering for the hope of getting a priceless reward in heaven.
III
What is pain? Is it possible to offer some sacrifices without feeling some pain in it? In the same manner, can we not feel pain if we experience suffering?
Pain is something undesirable which one does like to experience. It may be emotional or physical.
Physical pain takes place in the physical body. If someone feels some body aches, that is pain, and he does not want to feel it and if this pain continues, then the person is suffering.
Emotion pain involves with the heart. If one man loses his girlfriend, that is painful inasmuch as he does want to feel this loss. If this pain goes on for a long time, the man suffers because of that loss.
Now, this suffering would be taken as something positive (an opportunity for growth), or something destructive (one cannot accept the fact that he is suffering). One may consider this as a sacrifice or a torture.
In giving sacrifices, it is impossible to isolate it from pain. For a sacrifice without pain, is not a sacrifice at all. That's why, giving money to the poor, without getting hurt by the loss of ones money is not sacrifice. Thus, not a meritorious one in the eyes of God.