Sunday afternoon session: Love, suffering: two sides of reality
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"We cannot feel real charity — Christ's love for others — without at least tasting His suffering for others, because love and suffering are but two sides of a single reality," said Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the Seventy.
"When we are really afflicted in the afflictions of other people, we may enter the 'fellowship of suffering' enough to become joint-heirs with Him."
In his Sunday afternoon address, Elder Hafen discussed the doctrine of the Atonement and the relationship between grace and works. He noted that the long-taught traditional notion that the fall of Adam and Eve was a tragic mistake "is wrong, not only about the Fall and human nature, but about the very purpose of life."
Rather, the Fall was a deliberate part of the Plan of Salvation.
"We require mortality's discipline and refinement as the 'next step in (our) development' toward becoming like our Father," he said. "But growth means growing pains. It also means learning from our mistakes, in a continual process made possible by the Savior's grace, which He extends both during and after 'all we can do.' "
He explained that because of the Atonement, Adam and Eve "could learn from their experience without being condemned by it."
"So if you have problems in your life, don't assume there is something wrong with you. Struggling with those problems is at the very core of life's purpose," he said.
In life, "we grow in two ways — removing negative weeds and cultivating positive flowers. The Savior's grace blesses both parts — if we do our part."
He said grace is needed with both aspects. "But grace is not cheap. . . . How much does this grace cost? If we desire 'all that (the) Father hath,' God asks all that we have. . . . We must give the way Christ gave — every drop He had. . . . All of His heart, all of our hearts."
We are continually told that "the plan is worth our sacrifice, and His," said Elder Hafen. "So we must willingly give everything, because God Himself can't make us grow against our will, and without our full participation. Our 'all' by itself is still only 'almost enough' until it is finished by the 'all' of Him who is the 'finisher of our faith.' "
