"Is God ticked off?" asked the Fox News anchor in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Pakistan earthquake. Together these disasters had swallowed 373,000 lives!
Father Jonathan was supposed to answer that question in under 30 seconds, live on camera.
We should all be able to agree that when Cho Seung-Hui pulled the trigger and took 32 innocent lives back on April 16, 2007, it wasn't God's fault. "Free will is a free gift, but its consequences are not cheap," wrote Father Jonathan later in his book "The Promise" on human suffering. But he goes on:
But let's not let God off the hook so easy. If he is all-loving and all-powerful, why didn't he think of a backup plan, knowing we would choose selfishness over obedience? And besides, what about all the suffering caused by so-called acts of God like tsunamis and earthquakes?
To make the problem more pointed, if God is all-powerful then he COULD have kept a Hurricane Sandy from causing $20 Billion in damage and claiming already more than 122 innocent lives - he must have just not wanted to!
Again, if God is all-loving, we assume, then he WANTS to keep our homes intact and our loved ones alive - he must simply not be ABLE to.
It seems to make perfect sense - we see the damage and come to a clear-cut solution, either God is not all-loving, or he is not all-powerful ... or both!
Unless ... and here's the rub ... as Father Jonathan puts it: unless "God could bring out a greater good - something even better than the good that has been lost - from every case of suffering and evil. This is the Promise! It is God's response to a world that hurts."
Just because you understand it, doesn't mean the pain will go away. If you are hurting, either from Hurricane Sandy, or from depression, or from the lose of a loved one, or from the billions of things that make us humans break down and cry, I suggest you grab a copy of Father's book. It might just change your life.
If it does nothing else, it will at least fill you with the hope of what is to come.
"We do not have a solution ... to the problem of suffering unless someday suffering is no more."
Cho Seung-Hui was a victim of child rape, probably by an Episcopalian priest, as you can tell if you listen to the end of his YouTube video and read his 3 essays in Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteIf the Catholic church had done the right thing after their rampant child rape spree, and had put the criminals in jail, and helped the victims, then Cho Seung-Hui may not have been raped by his pedophile priest, as society would have been more just in dealing with child rapists.
Instead, the Catholic church protected the rapists and pushed the victims into a dark world, and of course, some would have no value for human life. The Catholic church has brought unmistakable evil to the world, but is doing so in a way that can't be seen by a billion followers who worship big buildings and big money more than God's innocent children.
You're right to ask hard questions, but here we're talking about GOD'S plan.
DeleteDo you honestly care about giving people answers to their deep questions about suffering? Or are you simply writing here to throw blame?
Your claim that the billions of Catholic believers "WORSHIP BIG BUILDINGS AND BIG MONEY MORE THAN GOD'S INNOCENT CHILDREN" says more about you, than about those believers.
I don't know the Catholics you've met, but I do know that I and a lot of my friends care about things that are a lot more important than buildings and money... like being there for those who suffer. THAT is a huge part of what makes us Catholics: being God's hands and feet for a world that suffers. Any Catholic who doesn't do that is a bad Catholic, not the loving person that all of us are called to be.
We believe too that love and generosity is part of God's Promise, part of God's answer to suffering. And that's what this article was about; about tying to reach out to those who suffer.