Dear Friends,
We have discussed why good people also suffer. More puzzling is the fact
that good things happen to bad people. The truth, however, is that being
good is relative. We are only good in relation to the standard of what is
bad, for the sight of God we are all sinners. If we say, We have never
sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word has no place in us (1 Jh 1:10).
In Jer 6:13, the prophet Jeremiah said: For, from the least to
the greatest, they are all greedy for gain; prophet no less than priest, all
of them practice fraud. Isaiah adds in Is 64:15, We have all been like
unclean things and our upright deeds like filthy rags. We wither, all of us,
like leaves, and all our misdeeds carry us off like the wind. Not our
worst but our best is a filthy rag, infested with impurities. Our generosity
is mixed with self-interest, our passion for justice with our lust for
vengeance, our love for God mixed with fear of God.
In chapter four of his book Problem of pain, C.S. Lewis listed
a few reasons why good people suffer. He explained that man is good
ontologically (by existence). God did not create defective images for Him,
however defaced they may be. This is the reason why man is worth more than
any gold or treasure in the world. But although man is ontologically good
morally he is not. We are all sinners. The world is a battlefield strewn
with broken treaties, families, promises, marriages, vows, lives, and
hearts. We are good stuff gone bad, a deformed masterpiece and a rebellious
child of God. We are not only imperfect creatures who need to grow; we need
to lay down our weapons. Suffering reminds us of the most obvious and
evident truth which we oftentimes forget- that we are not gods.
If we are truly good by existence, it should not be difficult
to recognize our moral weakness. This is humility: truth and justice. The
truth is WE ARE NOTHING, GOOD FOR NOTHING, WORTH NOTHING AND ALL THE GOOD IN
US COMES FROM GOD.
Justice tells us that we deserve nothing else but humiliation,
persecution, contempt, capital punishment etc. because we are NOTHING.
Moreover the good things God has lent to us were mainly used for our own
selfish interests and not for His glory, for the honor of the Blessed
Mother, and for the salvation of souls. This was the case of Adam and Eve,
who committed the original sin and handed it down to us, their offspring.
Justice tells us too that since all good thing come from God, it is but
fitting that all glory, honor , praise, and thanksgiving be given to Him
forever and always. The love of Christ, therefore, is only possible for the
humble: It is not the healthy who needs the doctor, but the sick
. I came
to call not the upright but the sinners(Mt 9:12). Jesus, the physician,
gives us the effective medicine the Good News. But He tells us first the
bad news, that we are sick.
Unfortunately many of us refuse to believe that we are sick or forget
that we are sick. In the same vein, pharisseeism is evident among those who
rejoice and say: I am better than others because I pray, I give alms, I
receive communion regularly. I am no thief, gambler, or murder. But the
minute they are asked to leave their comfort zone for a life of sacrifice to
atone for sins, they refuse, because they have become attached to
materialism, secularism, and hedonism.
This is the reason why some authentic messages of God as revealed by
Our Blessed Mother (e.g. Fatima) are rejected even now by some bishops,
priests, and lay people. Mother Mary tells us all to make sacrifice, to turn
our backs from a too comfortable lifestyle and to be in solidarity with the
poor. She tells us to do whatever Jesus tells us.
Jesus Christ, if He were to live with us now as He did in
Jerusalem, would blush at the extravagant way we live. As God He owns the
whole world but He opted to live in poverty while on earth ( Fr. Edgardo).
Bensilal Chacko.
DE, USA.
_
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