Why must man suffer?

Mother Angelica, in her book called The Healing Power of Suffering, said that "If the Son of God had to suffer in order to enter His Glory, than we too must suffer to enter into our glory."
We must also understand that God did not introduce suffering into the world. By listening to the serpent and partaking of the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve brought suffering upon all of mankind; suffering that will last until Judgement day when God will see himself how we accepted our crosses for love of Him.    This doesn't necessarily mean we should say "Adam and Eve are to blame for why I am feeling bad."  We as humans have many weaknesses and give in easily to temptation, that is just our nature.
God does not will us to suffer, actually He means the complete opposite!  After the resurrection, Christ took it upon himself to help us bear our crosses.  Even just looking at the crucifix comforts us, knowing that Christ is ever with us to help carry our daily crosses.

Crucifix At San Fernando Misson

We are not perfect and in order to obtain redemption and eternal life, we must go against our weaknesses and protect our souls from everything that is evil in the sight of God.  Occasionally, something will arise to distract us from our main goal of attaining a place in Heaven.  Thought these distractions and temptations, we find ourselves burdened with the thought of knowing what is right and yet, knowing that we did wrong.   

This is why Reconciliation is so important.  After confessing our sins to the priest in persona Christi, we are relieved of our guilt for even only a short while (after all we are human), but that little time where we are without sin gives us consolation.  A rest before we must take up our crosses once again and start on the road to Heaven.

The attitude we should have toward our suffering is to accept with gratitude the chance to share a small part of Christ's suffering on the cross.  By accepting our trials, we are thanking God for saving us from eternal damnation and though what He did for us was far greater than what we could do for Him, Jesus is overjoyed and grateful that we are willing to help Him on God's mission to save the world from the evil one.
St. Sebastian Valfe wrote, "When it is all over you will not regret having suffered; rather you will regret having suffered so little, and suffered that little so badly."
Our suffering is so small and insignificant compared to what Jesus suffered for us.

To conclude, I want to end with another quote but this time from St. Gemma Galgani.
"If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love."
I feel that this quote brings to light the true meaning of suffering, for with great suffering there is also great love."