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Imagine yourself coming home from shopping, school, or work and,
then, after turning the television on, hearing that eighteen people
you know were killed when a building collapsed upon them earlier in
the day. It’s really not that much different of a situation from
9/11/2001, when we saw or heard that more than 2,600 of our fellow
citizens died in the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade
Center in New York City or that another 125 died in the Pentagon in
Washington, DC.
Were we to use St. Paul as our guide to explain why tragedies like
these happen, the lesson is unmistakably clear: God sent these
tragedies to teach a lesson to those who are left behind. St. Paul
wrote:
These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not
desire evil things, as they did….These things happened to them as an
example, and they have been written down as a warning to
us....therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take
care not to fall. (Corinthians 10:11-12)
Perhaps St. Paul’s guidance makes sense when tragedy befalls evil
people, many might think, but St. Paul’s answer doesn’t satisfy those who ask: “Why
does God allow tragedy to befall good people?”
Just last week, tragedy visited the people of Chile when the 8.8
magnitude earthquake struck their homeland. Upon seeing the
devastation that affected fifteen of Chile’s provinces, perhaps many
of us wondered, “Why do bad things like this happen to good
people?” Had the ensuing tsunami visited tragedy upon the Hawaiian
Islands as some prognosticated it would, I’m sure many of us would
have wondered why the good people living in the Hawaiian Islands
would have deserved that fate.
Jesus asserts something different than St. Paul when Jesus
addressed the tragedy befalling those eighteen people who died when
the building collapsed upon them in Siloam. To get at what Jesus is
teaching, we first need to examine our typical responses to
tragedies because I believe many of us are all too quick to assert one of two incorrect opinions, falsely believing either is
the correct opinion.
The first opinion many of us assert is that “God is punishing
them for desiring evil things.” This is what the people in
Jerusalem said as they struggled to make sense out of the tragedy
associated with the building’s collapse, the same reason St. Paul
gives to the Corinthians. However, Jesus asked these people, “Do
you believe the eighteen were more guilty than everyone else who
lived in Jerusalem?” If those eighteen people had done things which
were more egregious than all of the people in Jerusalem, then
perhaps they
deserved that fate. After all, desiring evil things, they
received what evil begets: death. As St. Paul argued, God had willed the tragic death of those
people, perhaps to teach those surviving the tragedy to turn away from desiring evil things and to desire good
things. But, if those eighteen people hadn’t
sinned more egregiously than all of the people in Jerusalem, then
all deserved the same fate. It seems unjust that God would
punish some more than he would others.
Answering his question, Jesus said, “By no means!” (Luke 13:4).
That is, those eighteen people were no more sinful than were all the
people of Jerusalem, suggesting that God is not the author of
tragedy nor does God will it to befall people because of their guilt
for having desired evil things. After all, Jesus implies, if this
is true, then tragedy should have afflicted everyone in
Jerusalem…because all have sinned. Consequently, “All will perish
as they did!” Jesus exclaimed.
Jesus is teaching an important truth for us to consider, namely, God does not will the
death of any human being. No, death is the consequence, as St. Paul
told the Corinthians, “of desiring evil things.” How and when each
of us will die is unknown. However, what each of us does know is
that we will die—“perish we will,” Jesus says—because all of us have
desired evil things. But, to say that this makes God the author of
death is false. No, we are the author of death as a consequence of
our having desired evil things.
Consider this question: If God is “Good” and the Creator of all that
is “good”—after all, the Book of Genesis says that God looked upon
all He had created and saw that it was good, so good, in fact that
He rested on the seventh day—how is it possible that Good can beget
Evil? The answer? It is impossible, for this would contradict the
nature of the Good, that is, God.
So, consider this statement: Evil—of which death is the greatest—is
the privation of the Good. That is, we know what evil is as its
power deprives us of some good thing. For example:
·
We know that illness is evil because illness deprives us of health.
It is impossible for health to beget illness!
·
We know that blindness is evil because blindness deprives human
beings of sight. It is impossible for sight to beget blindness.
·
We know that deafness is evil because deafness deprives human beings
of hearing. It is impossible for deafness to beget blindness.
There are a host of examples to make this point. Consider
paralysis, mental disorders, and the like. But, most importantly,
we know that death is evil—the greatest of evils—because it deprives
human beings of life. It is impossible for life to beget death.
Evil is known by its effects, as it deprives human beings of
something they desire that is good! That God would send an
earthquake or tsunami, cancer, ALS, AIDS, or any other dread disease
upon human beings as a curse, a punishment, or as a means for people
to “demonstrate faith” is simply absurd. And, with all due respect
to St. Paul, that God would do so to teach those remaining behind a
lesson, I think that a very problematic proposition. That
those people desired evil things and the resulting consequence was
death is a lesson their death teaches which is different than saying
God willed people to die to teach survivors a much-needed lesson.
When the power of evil manifests itself in the form of tragedy, what
happens is that most people, in a knee-jerk type of reaction, accord
to God some mysterious reason for willing the tragedy. But, what this
opinion fails to account for is the nature of evil. According to
the Book of Genesis, the power of evil is “the most cunning of all
God’s creatures.” Evil succeeds when it deceives people into
believing that God can explain what, in fact, the power of evil has
sent their way. This deception evidences itself when we invent all
sorts of explanations about why God would visit tragedy upon people.
If we’d just think about it, all of those explanations reveal
some of the most odd and twisted sort of logic that makes God into
something that God could not possibly be.
The simple truth is that, as evil manifests its power, it deceives
people into demanding that God explain himself for what, in fact,
evil has done. If you doubt this, you might read the Book of Job,
especially the first chapter when Satan tells God that the only
reason Job loves God is because God has blessed Job. Believing in
Job’s firm devotion, God allows Satan to test Job by taking
everything from Job, with only one condition, Satan may not take
Job’s life.
Consequently, when tragedy visits people, the important question is not, “Why
did God do this?” No, the important question is “What does faith (meaning, ‘I
believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth’)
require of me?” Ultimately, all that any of us can say is that we
believe there is a God, who is good, and anything short of that
cannot be of God. I think this awareness opens up a pathway that
makes it possible to unmask the deceit that the power of evil seeks
to perpetrate.
While that does help to understand why God cannot be the author of
evil, clever people will assert an erroneous second opinion: “God
tolerates evil to work its ways to test people’s faith.”
This opinion, consistent with the book of Job, is not addressed by
St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. But, in today’s
gospel, Jesus responds directly to this notion, answering “But I
tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.”
What God desires is not death—the consequence of desiring evil
things—but repentance—turning away from desiring evil things and
toward desiring good things..
For Jesus, all people have sinned and faith unmasks the power of
evil for what it is and seeks to accomplish, especially when tragedy
strikes. But, the fruit of faith is evident not in “heeding a
warning” out of fear that desiring evil things will lead to eternal
damnation, but in repentance that makes it possible to desire again
the good things that lead to eternal life. “I tell you,” Jesus
said, “if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”
What does Jesus mean by this statement? What does it mean to
“repent” so that none of us will perish as all of those people in
Jerusalem did, just as Jesus foretold?
If you remember anything about what I say today, remember that
repentance does not mean “to feel sorry.” While there’s nothing
wrong with feeling sorry for sin and we should, in fact, feel sorry
for sin, to feel sorry for desiring evil things is not to repent.
No, repentance means “to regret” and, in light of today’s gospel,
repentance requires coming to the realization that we have failed to
grasp tragedy for what it really is. The people in Jerusalem were
not able to grasp what the tragedy that befell those eighteen people
meant and therefore did not regret having desired evil things just
like those eighteen people. Likewise for all people throughout
history who have not grasped what various tragedies meant and did
not regret having desired evil things. And for us, too, when we do
not grasp what tragedy means and do not regret having desired evil
things. It is through repentance—realizing what evil is and what it
seeks to accomplish in our lives and in the world—that we grasp
God’s goodness and desire good things. When we regret the
choices we have made and the character of the person revealed by
those choices, we don’t
live in denial about all of that but instead we turn away from all of that
because we desire something better.
We repent, then, when evil no longer deceives us so that we blame
God for tragedies. Instead, we repent as we recognize tragedy for
what it is so that, like Moses, we can know that God is calling us
from that burning bush in the middle of the desert of our lives with
all of the incumbent problems and,
like the gardener, we can know that the barren fig tree will bear
fruit when everyone is telling us to give up on the stupid tree.
This is how, in the midst of tragedy, repentance brings comfort
because we recognize that God is present in those situations where those who
do not have faith or whose faith is shallow or weak—because
they desire evil things—see
only death and destruction. This is no wide-eyed form of
idealism; quite the opposite, repentance steels us to look at what
is in front of us and to see it for what it truly is.
Now, I know that this does not reconcile the differences between
what St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and what Jesus tells the
people in Jerusalem. The scripture is God’s word—it is inerrant—so
I’ll have to study this matter more and ask for God’s guidance if I
am to reconcile these differences and provide a better explanation.
But, the principle that must be upheld and upon which we grow
spiritually so that we will desire good things is that God cannot be the
author of evil.
And, now, the
Annual Top 10 Lenten Penances:
The 2010 edition...
These penances are arranged in order from those fellow parishioners
have identified as “least demanding” to those they’ve identified as
“most demanding.” Those who want to practice a more “muscular” form
of Catholicism during the season of Lent should try performing as
many penances from the most difficult (“easier”) penances to the
least difficult (“very difficult”) penances as is possible.
(easier penances)
10. Immediately upon
waking up, begin each day by making a very slow and thoughtful Sign
of the Cross. Be sure to press you hand against your forehead
(mind), your stomach (source of emotions), and shoulders (heart and
lungs) so that you feel your body as you say the words. And, before
going to bed, do the same.
9. Abstain from meat
on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent and give up something
you enjoy—like second helpings, candy, or desserts—for forty days.
8. Attend daily Mass
and participate in the Stations of the Cross on the Fridays of Lent.
7. Each day, pick out
and offer to complete an undesirable chore assigned to someone else
at home, school, or at work.
(more difficult penances)
6. Abstain from all
foul language, filthy jokes, gossip, and sarcastic or demeaning
language each day of Lent.
5. Turn off the
computer except for absolutely essential work. That means: no
Internet chatrooms, IMs (instant messaging), non-essential emails,
and absolutely no websurfing for forty days.
4. (a choice)
[especially for retired persons] Spend one hour each week of Lent in
Eucharistic adoration. Don’t bring anything but yourself. Sit
there in silence and contemplate the gift of the Eucharist.
[especially for married couples] Spend one hour one night each week
looking at your wedding albums and discuss what your hopes and
dreams were. Ask each other: What do I need to do so that we can
fulfill our hopes and desires? [especially for kids] Ask you Mom or
Dad what one thing you need to do to improve yourself during Lent
and do it.
(very difficult penances)
3. Say the rosary
every day. But, do so by offering the rosary sincerely from your
heart for someone you are having difficulties with, like your
in-laws, brother or sister, etc. Or, in a private space each day,
stand up, stretch out your arms as if you are placing yourself on
the Cross, and envision your sins nailing Jesus to the Cross. Feel
the pain that sin causes.
2. Turn off the
television, radio, IPod, Playstation, etc., for forty days. “What
am I going to do?” you may wonder. (especially for single adults
and older couples) Try reading the Sunday Scriptures each day of the
week or a section from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
each day. (especially for teenagers) Along with your parents, read
Pope John Paul II’s encyclical, On The Family (Familiaris
Consortio). It’s free and available on the web. Read one
section each day and discuss it after dinner as a family. If you
don’t understand something, ask your parents to explain what the
Pope means.
1. Each day, sit down
in absolute silence. Think about yourself and your life for about
five minutes. Then, write down a sin or character flaw you know you
need to improve upon. When you think you’ve completed your list, go
to Church and make a good confession.
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HOMILY
