A reader writes:
I’ve been a Christian since 1997 and Catholic convert for 2 years, I have never been plagued quite this way.
Some time ago an acquaintance told me that she believed in God and Jesus but did NOT believe that He has anything to do with us. She made her case based on the many unanswered prayers of believers vs. so-called “answered” prayers. “How do you explain that one child is raped and murdered and God does nothing even though the parents are praying…. and meanwhile, another child is spared because her parents were praying? Is one child more deserving and loved than another? Are the prayers of one set of parents more powerful than those of the other? She went on to say that this proves her theory that God set the whole world in motion and is just sitting back watching. She prefers to think this way than to think that God intervenes for some and not for others.
Now, I don’t consider myself an ignorant person and I’ve read my share of books and been through the gamut of searching, seeking, and faith shaking. My faith remains intact, but I wish I had an answer for her.
Ideas?
The only answer, at the end of the day, is Christ crucified. The one who served God best of all and was, above all men, most beloved of the Father is also the one who endured the greatest suffering and the most desolating abandonment, followed by the most awesome glorification.
Chesterton puts it best when he says that in this life, we are on the wrong side of the tapestry. The threads we see make sense, but they make sense somewhere else, not here. Trying to deduce why one person suffers and another is granted a miracle is not possible here because we don’t know the end of the story. That’s the lesson of Job. The neat answers don’t work and the nihlist ones don’t satisfy. But to the Christian, one person is granted a share in Christ’s suffering and another is given a share in his healing because God, who knows the whole story, is not absent and just sitting back watching, but present and making each person a sharer in the life of Christ as He sees best. The paradox here is profound and scary, because one of the people who shares in Christ’s life may well be the person who dies crying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” We may account him despised and rejected of men, yet he may well be the one to whom God says, “Well done, thou good and faithful” when he opens his eyes on the Other Side of the Tapestry to discover that he very sense of forsakenness was his share in the great redemptive act of Christ for the world.
Whatever the case, the one thing the Christian story definitively puts to death is the notion that God has nothing to do with us and stands aloof. If there is anything that the story of the Incarnation of God in the person of Christ Crucified tells us, it is that he is passionately involved with us, even when we can’t for the life of us see how in our little tiny present moment. When we step back and look at the big picture, with God himself spiked to a cross for us, we can see that, whatever else may be the case, he’s not aloof.
Ultimately, your question boils down to the only one of two arguments there has ever been against the existence of God: the problem of evil. Why does God allow bad things to happen. Ultimately, the answer to that will not be fully understandable in this life. But what we are told by St. Thomas is this:
As Augustine says (Enchiridion xi): “Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.” This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.
This is still mysterious, but it is no more mysterious than the Resurrection, in which God makes good on that promise first in his very own body. He allows the worst evil to be done, not to us, but to himself, and then brings the glory of the Resurrection out of it. His promise is that we shall experience the same. That’s a frightening promise, but again, whatever else it is, it’s not evidence for his aloofness. If anything, we’d like him to be more remote than that.
One book that you might find helpful is Peter Kreeft’s Making Sense out of Suffering.
Ultimately there’s no formulaic answer. Evil is a mystery, like love. But God assures us that love is stronger than death.
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Padre Pio said about the angels: “The angels envy us for one thing only: they cannot suffer for God.”106 Suffering in our age is something we seek to avoid yet in the life of every saint you see them always embrace suffering
All of that makes sense to me but brings to the forefront a question.
Why ask for things in prayer?
I understand (as much as possible for me) that, “Trying to deduce why one person suffers and another is granted a miracle is not possible here because we don’t know the end of the story.”
But God knows as He knows what is going to happen and what we will do . . . .
I find myself praying for acceptance of God’s will and then interjecting something like, “but, God, if it is your will please -fill in the blank-”
How does all of this reconcile with “Ask and it shall be given” and “the faith of a mustard seed”?
Does our asking change God’s mind? Does the intercession of the saints sway God’s actions?
Peggy, that is a great question, one that I have never verbalized, but one that I have asked myself on numerous occasions. IT is even the one part of mass during which I feel most disconnected (asking God all these special things, I mean). I feel like, He’ll just do what he sees fit and I will pray in a contemplative or meditative form, but rarely, if ever, in a request form. I’m sure I’m missing something and would love to hear an attempt at answering your question, Peggy.
I also liked this article alot. The author provides an answer that is not necessarily new or groudnbreaking, but is definitely clear and organized.
I spent most of my life praying the wrong way. I just never realized that my prayers always boiled down to asking God to fulfill MY will. I am happy to say I finally realized I am not God. I not only believe..I feel certain God answers every prayer. With my “darkened” mind I will never understand how or why in most circumstances. All I know for sure is that I trust Him… in whatever comes to pass and however it comes to pass. I trust Him. Many of my prayers are for acceptance of His will—“My God, My God, for goodness sake CHANGE ME.”
May I add the example of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man Dives. Lazarus was so poor that he had nothing to eat except whatever fell from the rich man’s table. But in the end, it was Lazarus who went up to Heaven while Dives went down to Hell. Suffering, if united to that of Christ is a great form of reparation for our sins and that of the whole world. It reduces the temporal punishment we deserve through our sins. This is God’s expression of His love for us so that our time in purgatory will likewise be minimized. As 1 Peter 1:6-7 says: ... though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And Acts 14:22 - ... through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Like Christ, the more we suffer on earth, the greater glory we will have in the next life.
These comments are very helpful and inspiring, too.
I would like to clarify a tad on my earlier question (mostly in light of Gail’s comment).
The prayer requests to which I am referring are often for others - many times for people I do not even know. A good example is praying for the earthquake victims in Haiti. While we do all that we physically and financially can . . . . what is the best way to pray for help? And, are our prayers somehow changing what God decides to do? That, of course, takes me full circle to, “How can that be? God is omnipotent and knows past, present and future.”
Is prayer simply a mystery? Are we to only understand
that it is powerful,
that we should pray,
that it helps others (and ourselves)
but that we cannot understand it?
I think it may be time to dig into the CCC a bit more fervently.
In Christ,
Peggy
The answer to the title question is NO. Humanity has constructed a theological counterfeit in the place of true revelation. And every earthquake, tsunami, holocaust, war and injustice loudly proclaims the failure to comprehend the living truth of the living God which remains deaf, dumb and blinded by its own intellectual vanity. The purpose of a second coming is to expose this historical fraud. That will be some judgement!
http://www.energon.org.uk
Thanks, Peggy, re digging “into the CCC a bit more fervently” and for your question on Haiti. CCC600 sheds light on the mysteries of prayer and evil: Excerpting, “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace …. For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.”
That first sentence brings in the mystery of TIME. How our personal timelines (birth to death) map onto God’s “Eternal Present” baffles us. However, given the Time-Mystery is unemotional, its existence can be a lot more helpful than feeling low about personally disappointing “prayer results”. Now consider that the beautiful doctrine of the Communion of Saints plays a major role, for through it God wishes to reveal the organic nature of His Church wherein we are able to identify with and help one another—even across the Great Barrier!
Hence we should feel comfortable and confident, thus:
1) “THY will be done” is the way to pray; it includes our asking for anything WE think good for ourselves and especially for others – like Haiti.
2) Since God knows everyone’s “timeline”, “prayer” is mainly OUR OPPORTUNITY to grow in love, trust & friendship with Him and with those being “prayed for”, knowing our request is ALWAYS heard by God who rightly answers according to “the full story”. Intercession works but not in the sense of “changing” the Mind of the One Who Knows the full timelines. If what we ask is good, “interceding” saints support us before God Who is pleased to display the organic nature of His Church.
On Haiti, please consider reading what a poster “Teachable” wrote (ninth post down):
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/25/haitian-pain-raises-questions-about-god/comments/
I love that you used the Chesterton metaphor of the backside of the tapestry. I often use a similar one. When “bad/evil/painful/sad” things happen they provide the black or shadows necessary to make the light (of Christ) show up in the picture. Without the contrasts we could not see the defining aspects of the picture of life. And yes, negative does bring out the good in so many…Thank God
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