"
Father
John
J. Lombardi
One
of the biggest questions in life is: If God is so loving
why is there suffering?
Everyone, at some point in life asks this question
and searches for an answer. As Catholic Christians,
despite all the suffering and evil in the
world-countless deaths by cancer, terrorists
slaughtering innocent people, children starving to
death-Catholics still believe there IS a redeeming
reason for suffering. A meditation on "God and the
Problem of Evil," by Dominican priest Fr. Paul
Raftery, is very helpful, practical, and the following
is a compilation.
Firstly, he analyses ancient "answers" to
the theodicy (why evil/suffering) question, such as
Manicheanism, which St. Augustine--fifth-century African
philosopher and Catholic convert-- followed, which
speculates there is an evil god who made creation, and
therefore suffering is a direct result of people being
embodied in the world. Augustine, though swayed for a
while ("New Ageist" philosophies and some
Eastern ones basically teach forms of this) kept
searching and found the answer in Christianity.
Augustine formed a solution to theodicy this classic
way: "God, since He is the highest good, would in
no way allow any evil in His works unless He were so
omnipotent and so good that He could turn evil to
good."
Basically we believe that God is not a
"tyrant" who prevents creature's autonomy and
freedom: He did not make us mechanistic robots, so He
allows creativity and faulty choice rather than puppets
mechanistically controlled on a string.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Italian Dominican-theologian in
the 1200's, helps us understand God wants creation to
operate in a free and creative manner: for instance the
oak tree has its own powers of growth within it, and
lightning electrical force to strike from the sky.
Further, God is open to the possibility of His creatures
"failing"--operating out of order, not as He
designed. This is the "cost" of giving us free
will, and God respects the sometimes drastic and
dramatic results of free will--which are suffering and
evil. Though God wants harmonic order He allows the
lightning to strike the oak tree and break it, and even
may tolerate or allow the damaged tree hitting a house
or maiming a child. (This "allowance" is
called "God's "passive will.")
The tree wouldn't be a tree without its vulnerability
to lightning; lightning wouldn't be lightning without
its striking, powerful effect: Fr. Raftery comments,
"How tragic it would be for the Creator to
interrupt His creatures every time one is the cause of
some evil coming upon another! It is only illusion to
imagine that it would be a better universe were God to
do so. Why illusion? St. Thomas says, 'If evil were
completely eliminated from things, they would not be
governed by Divine Providence in accord with their
nature (the normal activity of a thing would be
suppressed while God prevented the evil); and this would
be a greater defect than the particular defects
eradicated.' The proper nature of a thing or creature
would be repeatedly subverted as the Divine would be
required to intervene again and again."
"So St. Thomas will say that God is always
arranging for an evil to be at the service of some good.
The decay of plants in the forests provide for the
nourishment of new plants…the endurance of the saints
and the shining light of their virtue arises through
persecutions by the wicked. How true it is that "If
evil were completely excluded from things, much good
would be rendered impossible." Rather than
protecting all creatures from evil God puts evil to work
for perpetuating and enhancing the goodness of the
universe as a whole and individual creatures within
it."
"In point of fact it is very hard for us to
bring out our love of God to the utmost except under
suffering. It is very hard for us to exert our will to
the utmost, except under opposition…If we could get
across the room by using only 10 percent of our power,
we should only bring out 10 percent of our power, if
there were no opposition. That is a very important
thing." The saints might say, "No pain, so
spiritual gain." Yves Congar, a Dominican priest
said: "It is in suffering that we are withdrawn
from the the bright superficial film of existence, from
the sway of time and mere things, and find ourselves in
the presence of profounder truth."
Sometimes we think that God does not care about our
suffering. To this mood in all of us, the French poet
Paul Claudell responds, "Jesus did not come to do
away with suffering or remove it; He came to fill it
with His presence."
Think of Olympic athletes: They will not make the
Olympics in Utah unless they train and strain-heroically
and painfully. The same is true for us: we will not
deepen our love for God and one another except when it
costs something, when we go through the "spiritual
training camp" of life and suffering wherein we
prune away excess attachments, selfishness and pollyanna
dreams, and excel to saintly love of the Cross which
leads to Resurrection life. Some say: There is no Crown
without the Cross.
Some great saints embraced heroic sufferings, knowing
that "Trial is God's alchemy by which the dross is
left in the crucible, the baser metals are transmuted
and the character is enriched with gold." (Wm.
Morley Punshon)…Whatever mental, physical or spiritual
suffering you might have… After all, God allowed His
own Son to suffer in this world; not to condone
senseless suffering but show us He can teach us deeper
lessons through suffering and that He understands and
embraces our suffering.
ALWAYS REMEMBER!: "Now no chastening for the
present seem to you to be joyous, but grievous;
nevertheless, afterwards, it yields peaceable fruit…(Heb.
12:11). *Suffering and evil are a result not of God-a
"flaw in His design"-but rather the result of
people's misuse of freedom and, in particular, sin. We
can, in a subtle way, "keep God hostage" when
we blame it on Him--thinking He should prevent it, or we
are not responsible for it. All these thoughts and
feelings-ultimately--are "strategies" of the
self to prevent purification or abandonment into God's
Will. Suffering-and even evil-can polish our souls, in
ways we could or would not do so otherwise. -"We
know that all things work together for good for those
who love God." (Rm. 8:28)…*don't waste your
suffering-offer it up". This "traditional
saying" means we should present a precious, costly
experience-from stepping on a nail to dying from a
disease-to God as a small way of imitating Jesus'
sufferings. It is precious to God because we must suffer
and undergo pain, and it is not something we would
ordinarily do or choose.
CATECHISM QUOTE "All who die in God's
grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified,
are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after
death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the
holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The
Church gives the name Purgatory to this final
purification of the elect…" (CCC: #1030) .Let us
see purgatory as a blessing (yet one more, final, way
God sheds His mercy upon sinners); a grace (that we can
still pray for the deceased and effect their journey).
QUOTE of THE WEEK: "I am not I nor You/
yet You are I in me. / And so my God/ I pay all homage
sole to Thee." Angelus Silesius, Polish
priest-convert.
Chaplain's prayer-intentions for Thursday:
- That all peoples may come to realize and accept
Jesus Christ as the One Savior of mankind.
- For all peoples to cultivate more silence and
simplicity in their lives, which will provide them
spiritual, liberation and trust in God
- For all Catholics and Christians to have deeper
devotion to, and realization of the Most Blessed
Trinity-the Three, Majestic, Divine, and Uncreated
Persons of the Godhead
Read
other Sermons by Father John J. Lombardi