Did Jesus come to help us get in touch with our own divinity?

This is an impossible and bizarre way of misunderstanding the message of Christ. First of all, Christ never said anything about us “realizing our divinity.” That is a bunch of New Age nonsense. The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that we are not God. Second, not all suffering due to a person’s sin. Just ask the crucified Christ who, though he is fully God (and fully realized it), hung upon the cross not for his sin, but for ours. Just ask the blind man of whom Jesus said neither he nor his parents sinned, yet he was born blind (Jn 9:3). Or just ask Paul, who begged three times to have the thorn in his flesh removed and was told by Christ, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).

It places a crushing burden on the sick and suffering to say, “Just snap out of it. You’re only hurting because you have no faith.” Worse still, it places the soul of one who says such things in jeopardy, for we can easily find ourselves numbered among those to whom Christ says, “Woe to you! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers!” (Lk 11:46).