 |
| Michaelangelo's 'Pieta' , Rome |
One of the
hardest things for any of us to face and understand is suffering. The
question that always comes up is, ‘If God is good and all-powerful,
why is there suffering and evil in the world?’ Why doesn’t God
stop it? No good ever seems to come from suffering, so why does God
allow it? The answer is free will. God gave us free will, but with
freedom comes responsibility.
Today there
is a lot of talk about freedom, protecting our freedom at all costs.
What is freedom? Real freedom is living in God’s kingdom, living by
the teachings of God. Doing whatever you want, regardless of the
consequences, does not lead to freedom, it leads to chaos and to
evil. Go back to the story of Adam and Eve. God told them they could
eat of any tree in the garden, except for the tree of good and evil.
He was telling them not to step beyond their limitations—the tree
of good and evil. Recognize and respect your limitations. They
experienced fulfillment and happiness because they were living in the
realm of God, as He asked them to. As long as they didn’t ‘play
God’ they were fine. But they were tempted to disobey God and they
gave in to the temptation. They didn’t listen to what God told
them. They gave in to the temptation that ‘they could be like
gods’, in other words, to do whatever they wanted, respecting no
limitations and look at what happened. They brought chaos into the
world. Sin.
In interviews
I have often heard drug dealers and traffickers say, ‘I just bring
the drug, it’s up to the people to do whatever they want.’ In
other words, I take no responsibility for my actions. We tell our
young women that they can dress whatever way want, no matter how
disrespectful and if it causes men to sin, that is their problem. I
take no responsibility for my actions. Our society tells us that it
is ok to sleep around and you don’t have to take responsibility for
the consequences. If a young woman gets pregnant, we tell her that
she can just destroy the fetus. I take no responsibility for my
actions. That was what Adam and Eve did. They were told by the devil
that it was freedom, but it wasn’t. God showed them what true
freedom was, but they rejected it.
Look at what
is happening in our world today. So many people have abandoned the
ways of God, refuse to listen to God, even deny God and sin continues
to multiply. We see more and more evil. What is good is often called
evil—everyone should be able to do whatever they want, regardless
of the consequences—and evil is called good: abortion, euthanasia,
telling children to choose their own gender. It is against God’s
commandments, and they lead to destruction and death.
Throughout
history God continually offered the Jewish people the chance to enjoy
true freedom, by living his Commandments, but they continually
rejected it. Moses said to the people:
See,
I set before you today life and prosperity, death and
destruction.
For
I command you today to love the Lord your
God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees
and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your
God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. (Deut
30:15-16)
That
is true freedom, but it comes with responsibility. We have free will
but we have to take responsibility for our actions. So God points out
specifically what we need to do and avoid, by giving us the
Commandments. This is the path for us to find freedom.
In
the Gospel today when the two disciples are downcast and can only see
what has gone wrong, Jesus opens their minds to understand the
Scriptures. Only in God everything makes sense. He showed them that
despite the human evil that led to the betrayal and death of an
innocent man, God brought the greatest good imaginable out of it; not
only a man rising from the dead, but opening the way for us to return
to the original happiness we had lost through disobedience. Even
though we sin and cause suffering, God can still bring great good out
of any situation, but we will only recognize that in God. That is why
it is so important that we keep going back to listen to what God is
saying to us in the Scriptures, so that we can see things from God’s
perspective and not just from human perspectives. Our life on earth,
only makes sense in God.
The
two disciples were thinking only in human terms and could only see
what had gone wrong and that it hadn’t turned out as they had
hoped. ‘Our own hope had been that he would be the one to free
Israel…’ ‘We are so disappointed.’ But Jesus helped them to
see that God has a much higher purpose that goes way beyond what we
can see. His plan for us is happiness and freedom, but not in the way
we think. He shows us what we need to do—follow his teaching; be
responsible for our actions—and that will lead to the greatest
freedom imaginable, but we must listen to what He says. He
began to show them how everything fits together in God’s plan. The
death of Jesus was meant to happen, so that the resurrection would
happen, so that the pathway to heaven could be reopened. But that
only makes sense if you see it through God’s eyes. We would never
say that good could come out of the terrible injustice of an innocent
man being tortured and killed and yet look what happened.
When
we are faced with situations of injustice and suffering, try and
think of this. From a human point of view, the suffering and death of
Jesus makes no sense. ‘Our own hope had been…’ But in God’s
plan, the most wonderful thing imaginable happened, but they could
only see that once God showed them the bigger picture.
If
we hope to not be overwhelmed by the evil that is around us, we must
stay focused on God, focused on his teachings. It will always be
difficult and it will never fully make sense of it, but if we stay
focused on God, we will remember that there is something much greater
going on, which will make sense in the end. That is why the Apostles
were so zealous in preaching what they had learned, because it made
sense of everything and that is why the Lord told them to make it
known. Only in God does our life make sense and only in God do we
have true freedom.
“Oh,
how foolish you are!
How
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was
it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and
enter into his glory?”
No comments:
Post a Comment