We begin a new year full of dreams and hopes. But we also begin this year with an overwhelming sense of tragedy in the aftermath of tremendous death, loss and destruction in Asia. Putting the two states of mind together may seem a bit overwhelming. Everywhere we seem to hear the question, “How could God allow this to happen?”
I don’t know whether we can come up with an answer that will satisfy everybody or truly answer the question fully. But there are some lines of thought that can guide us.
One of the most telling considerations for Christians is the fact that God did not spare even his own Son from horrendous suffering and death. Cries for divine intervention permeated the air on Golgotha. It is even reported in the gospels that the crucified Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It is normal and natural to feel abandoned when tragedies happen to us. Yet the resurrection challenges us to interpret tragic events in a way that surpasses human understanding. When such things happen, we are tempted to ask what kind of God, who is supposed to be omnipotent, could permit something so tragic. The fact is, we may not ever arrive at a fully satisfactory answer with our human reasoning, and as a result some will tend to conclude that God is cruel. The real problem is that we are constantly being called to challenge our cherished ideas and ways of thinking. For us, this is not the easy answer that we long for and therefore some people will dismiss it. We’re at the heart of faith here. Can we have faith in God when, from a human standpoint, that faith may seem unwarranted? When we come to terms with that question we take a giant step toward coming to know the mind and heart of Jesus. He knew – more deeply than most of us ever will – what the appearances showed, and yet he believed. It remains for us to decide whether or not we will join him in that belief. It takes much more humility to admit that we struggle to understand God’s ways than it does to insist that God should conform his ways to ours. That is true, even when we are dealing with unspeakable tragedy.
It brings us up short to realize that the purpose of theological reflection is not necessarily to make God look good to human eyes. Rather, it is to help us to understand God. The situation is akin to Shakespeare’s “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not with the stars, but with ourselves.” Whatever God’s role in a tragedy turns out to be, it is not appropriate for God to be brought down to our level of reasoning; rather it is for us to be brought up to God’s.
Did God will the tsunami tragedy? From the gospel accounts of the life and work of Jesus, I hardly think so. Could he have prevented it? It’s entirely possible, in the same sense that he could have prevented the death of Christ. If so, why didn’t he? We just don’t know. Tragedies such as this challenge us to the very roots of our faith. Sometimes we just have to admit that we don’t have all the answers.
Perhaps this is because we are asking the wrong questions. We get some help here from a passage in St. Luke’s gospel (Luke 13: 4), in which Jesus comments on a similar tragedy – the collapse of a tower which killed a large number of people. Commenting on the incident, Jesus turns directly to the question of human mortality. No matter how or when death comes, he tells his hearers, it comes nonetheless. His conclusion – the only appropriate response is to realize the inevitability of death and to assure ourselves that we have done everything necessary to be ready when it comes. That is a much better question for us than worrying about than whether God was responsible.
Perhaps the complexity of all of this is the reason that God gave us not only a first commandment – to love him – but also a second one – to love our neighbor. Knowing the tremendous challenge it can sometimes be to understand his ways, he gave us something we can more readily do – respond to our neighbor in need. The tremendous outpouring of assistance to the tsunami’s victims from all over the world is a heartfelt response to an unimaginable set of needs. That second commandment is perhaps his wise way of letting us know about his caring and his kindness. The fact that he gave us such a commandment – to love those in need and to consider them our neighbor even when they lie half way around the world from us is actually, when you stop to think about it, a way of helping us to expand our vision. Our neighbor is usually someone next door or in the next block. God says, “Your neighbor may be half a planet away.” The fact that so many people are “getting” this leaves great hope for an expansion of their vision of God as well.
These are complicated questions to which there are no simple answers. They challenge our beliefs about God and neighbor. They make us think and pray and do. Despite their complexity – perhaps even because of it – they could well lead humanity to an expansion of awareness and lead us to be more considerate of God and of each other.
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