I’m hoping you’re not tired of hearing me say this, but thank you for your writing. It so often seems that you’re writing specifically about something that affects my own life. You have such beautiful clarity in your writing, and I always feel comforted after reading your posts. (Even the really grim ones!)

God made you.  Case closed.

This is AMAZING. And so true I am book-marking it as a favorite.

And the image of “some kind of vindictive Santa Claus,” did make me laugh out loud.

Brava Simcha,you met every touchstone of excellence here.

“Thank you Lord for not giving me what I deserve but for giving me so much more.” Years ago that became my daily prayer and since then I’ve forgotten.  Thank you for reminding me…

Today is another reason your column is a must read.

Thank you, thank you! I’d like to post this on my Facebook page, by copying & pasting the link. May I share this please?

This is amazing!  I needed to read these words so badly!  Thanks for writing it!

This aligns with what Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart said: “our faith is in a God who has come to rescue His creation from the absurdity of sin and the emptiness of death, and so we are permitted to hate these things with a perfect hatred… As for comfort, when we seek it, I can imagine none greater than the happy knowledge that when I see the death of a child I do not see the face of God, but the face of His enemy. It is not a faith that would necessarily satisfy Ivan Karamazov, but neither is it one that his arguments can defeat: for it has set us free from optimism, and taught us hope instead. We can rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that He will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, He will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes – and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and He that sits upon the throne will say, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”

The Problem is that you’ll find plenty of Protestants who have the very views of ‘God’ Atheists reject and so conveniently provide hard evidence that ‘we’ believe that sort of rubbish.

I don’t know why we’re constantly encouraged to be so friendly towards Protestantism as it merely lacks Christianity’s full expression. Please. It’s toxic and deadly to the essence of the One True Faith.

Simcha, this is your best column ever.  Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sadly there seems to be so much more evil in the world than goodness. I guess that is why Christ wondered if there would be any faith when he returned. I was at mass Sunday at Our Lady of the Pines and through the window beside the altar I could see people sledding on the opposite hill. The Spirit pointed out how easy and fun it is to slip and slide down in sin and evil but how hard it is to climb up in love and virtue. Only those with real determination will rise above evil, and only if they seek God’s help.

Paul, while what you said is true, remember that ANYTHING that deviates from the truth is toxic and deadly, just to varying degrees. That is how the devil draws us away, he gets us to believe and obey everything “but” this one thing that I disagree with, or that isn’t such a big deal. Then that one thing clouds everything else, slowly breaking our communion with him.

When we relate to non-Catholics it’s important to realize that you can’t “give” on anything that counters the faith, but you can’t just approach someone with “YOU’RE WRONG!” that rarely works. It’s much better to affirm where they are right and then show how it is inconsistent in their world view. Kind of like this post does, Simcha says to this author that she is right, “God isn’t fair - isn’t that glorious?”

One of the best things I’ve ever read by you. Amazing.

Simcha, God is Love.  Ponder on that. Thank you for this writing.

I don’t understand how rejecting God would make anyone feel better about the problem of pain or evil. Without God, life sucks and then you die. With God (and especially with Catholicism) at least suffering has a purpose and there is the promise of eternal life.

Simcha at her best!!

From the CNN blog:
“He has given us free will,” you say? Our children have free will, but we still step in and guide them.”
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I wonder if she would like God to step in & physically guide her to make better decisions as she would guide her child? Probably not.

Thank you for this and other essays. A minor linguistic quibble: I would say, rather, that God is fair, insofar as fairness implies justice - which is not the same as slavish and indiscriminate but EVEN distribution of gifts (everyone gets exactly the same size slice of the exactly same flavor pie), rather it is distribution of gifts accordi g to the beloved’s unique self and eternal happiness. I would not say evil is fair so much as that evil *does not discriminate*.  In these days when discrimination has a pejorative meaning that has overwhelmed the original (hint: discrimination and discernment used to be understood as practically synonyms), that can sound ironic, but it is not meant so. Evil does not care who you are, it will take anyone it can get its claws into. God cares who you are because God wants us to be the best us we can be, because he loves us and love must know its object and care about who the beloved is in order to do what most facilitates the good and lasting happiness of the beloved.

“I understand evil.  It makes sense to me.  I understand the crucifixion.  The crucifixion is fair:  there is evil in the world, and evil can’t have Jesus.  Kill Him.  Problem solved.  Perfectly fair.
What I do not understand is goodness.  What I do not understand is the Resurrection—His Resurrection, our resurrection.”

Wow. Somebody finally said what I’ve been thinking for nearly 2 years, that the Crucifixion makes sense and the Resurrection doesn’t. Although I hadn’t thought it out as carefully; it just came from my personal experience. I still don’t understand the Resurrection and even though I can see its very slow progress in my life, sometimes I don’t believe in it, but keep slogging along in the company of the Crucified.

A lot on the plate to digest here. At the risk of taking the following NT passage out of context, I offer: Luke 13:1-5.

Another book (perhaps THE book) devoted to this question: Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy. A brief synopsis: Boethius’ protagonist is himself, languishing in prison, having been put there unjustly, and despairing about the unfairness of our lives: why are evil men successful while good men are punished? He is visited by Lady Philosophy who nurtures him back to his right mind with comforting songs and poems as well as by reasonable arguments (first simple, then quite complex) about the true natures of good, evil, God, free will, predestination, fate, and chance. Despite the fact that Boethius is a Catholic saint, he never mentions the Bible: this is the Consolation of Philosophy (i.e., arguments from our natural reason) about how to understand the world and its governance. It is an absolute must-read.

Read the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes. The real answer to the problem of evil is in them (or so I think…)

Good job!

Atheists remind me of over indulged Western teenagers.  You don’t see the Africans, Poorer Asians or poor South Americans spitting in God’s eye.  “The Cross” resonates with them for good reason.
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My brother and his wife tried to improve upon God’s plan.  My SIL had been the neglected daughter of divorce and had a deep desire to provide the material things and security she never had.  She came into some money at the beginning of their marriage, and my brother’s career really took off.  Their children wanted for nothing.  My SIL never spanked them, and always used positive psychology when they came to blows with each other.
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The problem was when their climate controlled paradise hit a real rough spot, in the way of serious money troubles.
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My niece took it particularly hard.  When her dog died, her boyfriend dumped her, her skin broke out, and her plans for the college she’d chosen, (where all you need is a pulse and a check book) became a financial impossibility, she went into a tailspin.  The ones that really took it on the chin however, were my brother and his wife.  Upon graduation, when she received a plain old Mac Book laptop, instead of the Mac Book Pro,like her brother had gotten, a couple of years preceding her, she REALLY freaked.  She began addressing her parents by their first names, threatened to kill herself, and then didn’t speak to her parents for about a year.  She stopped going to mass during that time and partied hard in the apartment she was set up in.  When I, as her godmother confronted her for her behavior, she called me terrible things, stopped speaking to me too and defriended all of my kids on facebook. What could we do?  We couldn’t penetrate her steely rage, but sensed she was in deep water.  All we could do at one point was really pray for her.
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She’s had a hard two years of rebellion.  When her “fresh start for a new life” in Los Angeles also failed to make her happy, she began the slow journey of letting the people she believes failed her, slowly back into her life.  Anger is so isolating.  She has started to go back to mass again.  She even joined the family at Christmas dinner.  She’s not out of the woods yet, but I suspect that in the end, her parents’ patience with her, and forgiveness will win the day.  I hope so. 
By the way, she’s 5’10”, thin, beautiful, and exceptionally talented in Math.
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Studies have shown that happiness in directly linked to *gratitude*. 
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If the CROSS, is not the ultimate truth and solution, to every drop of UNFAIR SUFFERING in this life, I can’t fathom what the atheists are waiting for.

The concept of duality of causes is widely promulgated, but probably erroneous.  In patristic days, our first fathers battled strenuously against the gnostic notion of a dualistic universe: God and satan, good and evil, light and darkness, fear and hope.  They were right then, but I guess the battle never ends; the seduction of evil is constant and real.

There really is only one “force” in the universe, one power, one reality, one good, one truth, one life, one light.  I’ll give you a guess as to what is His Name.

The reason I really love this blogsite is because it’s home to so many mothers: expectant mothers, hoping-to-be mothers, grieving mothers, rejoicing mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, aunts sisters lovers.  They fill this spot with real life stories about being a loving parent, a yearning parent, an apprehensive parent, a doting parent, a real-life in your face here I am your mother parent.

And that’s exactly how God is.  No fooling - just like that.  I come here every day to see the face of God.

Paul, I understand what you are saying.  It seems like every time I get in a discussion with an atheist/agnostic they have a very Protestant understanding of religion…from being sola scriptura to rejecting authority.  I don’t think we Catholics realize just how entrenched the Protestant paradigm is in our culture.

Kathleen wrote:

Posted by Kathleen on Friday, Jan 18, 2013 1:41 PM (EDT):

From the CNN blog:
“He has given us free will,” you say? Our children have free will, but we still step in and guide them.”
**********************************************************
I wonder if she would like God to step in & physically guide her to make better decisions as she would guide her child? Probably not.

Kathleen, this popped out at me too, and where I had to stop reading, to keep my blood pressure down. The author complains that God gave us free will, but no guide on how to act, how to be good. Ummm… I thought to myself, what does she think the Bible IS? I mean, I know it’s more than just a guide to life, but really, God did guide man through the OT through to the NT, until we see the perfect Good guide in Jesus himself.

I mean, she’s under no obligation to agree, but this section just smacked at such a basic misunderstanding, a not caring of what Christians actually teach that I had to be done. Thanks to Simcha and the rest who actually got through the rest of the piece to speak about it.

“She seems to have learned about God in the way many atheists and agnostics do:  through sitcoms and comment boxes and fundamentalist kiddie songs.”  If comment boxes are so bad, then why don’t you shut down the comments on your blog?  No offense taken though.  Good day.

Well put Matt—me too.

I really don’t understand the argument that evil is fair. If one argues that evil acts are meant to engender fairness because there is already evil in the world, why is not the same applicable for good? This relies on the premise that the world is literally an evil place.

“I wonder if she would like God to step in & physically guide her to make better decisions as she would guide her child? Probably not.”

I dunno… I would!  Honestly, I’ve always felt the *opposite* way from Simcha about evil - to me, it’s goodness that makes sense.  God Is.  He is beauty, truth, substance and light.  There is no crack, no flaw in his nature.  So why are his creations, which are supposed to be patterned after him, so ruined, tortured, and rebellious?  Why do they keep choosing Not God? 

I don’t understand evil.  I can imagine an alternate reality in which God made creatures with free will who simply… freely did good.  God is free, and he never does evil - why is it so hard to imagine angels and people taking after their Father in this?  Mary could have chosen evil, but she didn’t.  Plenty of angels could have chosen evil, but didn’t.  Are they less free than the damned?

Evil is a mysterious crack in being, sending air hissing into a vacuum which technically doesn’t exist.  If I were God, I would have done without it!  But of course I’m not God.  Evil is a mystery, but I can’t deny that it had to happen - God let it, for reasons we will simply have to wait patiently to hear.

A perfectly wrought Hopkins sonnet is reasonable.  A string of vile curses from someone you thought you knew and loved is not.  Limitless bounty from an unlimited God makes sense.  People scrabbling in the dust for a few grains of wheat don’t. 

Be my guest, anyone, if you want to talk me out of this!

Thank you!  Loved this post.  Just printed it and added it to my family bulletin board :)

If God were perfectly fair, we’d all be in Hell.

Fantastic and beautiful post, Fischer. God Bless you

yes! fan-freaking-tastic.

It seems to me that God must be perfectly fair and perfectly just, ultimately. If he weren’t a god of perfect justice, it would diminish his excellence, and that can’t be. He knows all and sees all, even into our hearts, and Jesus teaches “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing.”

Perfect justice is when a person gets exactly what they deserve. Mercy is when a person gets a good thing without doing anything to merit it.

Fortunately God’s perfect justice is trumped by His great and infinite mercy. If we pray for His mercy He will spare us damnation (eternal punishment for our sins), but we must still suffer the temporal punishment (time in Purgatory) of our sin to satisfy His justice, and to prepare and cleanse our souls to be with him in eternity.

And, it is doubly fortunate (another sign of His love and mercy), the prayers and indulgenced works done by others on our behalf can speed that process.

Seems fair to me. The economy of salvation is a beautiful thing.

There are really only two types of people in this world. Those that believe and those that don’t. Those that do, love God. Those that don’t (like myself) don’t hate God..How can you hate something you don’t believe exists? The odd few on the fringes just are unclear on their issues. However, those of us that do not believe in God, have some serious justifiable concerns with organized religion. As long as those matters don’t infringe on our lives, there is no animosity. It’s when organized religion impinges, that attention is focused on a belief that is contrary to our personal freedoms. In essence, follow the teachings of Jesus, humility and meekness, don’t step over the line and there’s no problem. Simple….

I read your last paragraph and wish I had the same conviction. I’ve been doubting a lot lately and can’t get this one, incredibly juvenile thought out of my head. God made me, why wouldn’t be love me? He’s my Father. Father’s love their children. He made me with free will, knowing I would sin, he should love me anyway. I’ve lost my awe of God’s love because I know it’s what should be. Make sense?

This reminds me of a story I heard Fr Groschel tell…  He was approached by a stranger who said “I dont believe in God”.  Fr G said “Tell me about this God you dont beleive in” and got an explanation much like the essay were discussing. Fr G said “Oh good, I dont believe in that God either”.

That said, in response to those who think that the idea that most atheists have of God has been informed by Protestantism (is that really a word?) is contrary to my experience.  I have learned of a God of justice and mercy - without contradiction.  In fact, this very blog post reminded me very strongly of something written by a Baptist minister.  He says here http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/where-was-god-in-all-the-goodness-of-2012 that God is good, and that it is He who gives every good thing to us and keeps us from being overcome by evil. 
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Further, as I’m sure Simcha knows though perhaps some of her readers do not, C.S. Lewis was Anglican and he was a great apologist for Christianity.

Wow. This is so good it just can’t be fair. I love your work, Simcha.

Simcha Fisher, I’m sure I don’t agree with your florid description of evil.  You give it way too much credit, and paint with colors it doesn’t deserve.  Even a great white is legitimately thrilling when you bang it out of the water.

I’m reminded of a passage of CS Lewis where he describes a trip to visit Napolean.  (This was before Hitler became “really evil.”)  It turns out that the protagonist had to travel really far into isolation to find Le Grand Emprrerr, and the implication was that the relevant scale had diminished to near nothingness. 

No one could actually gain access to the wee court, but peering in through foggy glass our traveler could barely discern a little tortured man surrounded by the trophies of his poor passion.  All the grandeur was quite gone. 

Evil is really flatulent and dull, not very interesting, and much to be avoided - if for nothing than the deadly banality of it.  Thus I caution you.

Awesome post!  [...even though I felt compelled to read the article mentioned, which was drivel.]

The CNN writer praises herself and others like her for raising “sane” humanists and atheists who will “turn down the religious fever in this country”.

Wonder how see will react when one of her kids starts questioning her lifeless and sad point of view, and/or becomes friends with a Christian~and converts! 

This has already happened in my extended family, as not one but TWO adult nephews raised as atheists are strong men of God.  One is an elder in his Baptist church, the other became Catholic, along with his wife, and is raising his three children in the Faith!

Over the years of arguing with atheists it became clear that they have a false caricature of God, Christ and our teachings. They don’t argue to discuss or learn, but to mock and ridicule. They are genuinely the most close minded ignorant people you will ever meet. They tend to behave the way a demonically possessed person would. Say a rosary or wear a crucifix in certain places, coffee shops, etc. and watch their head turn around and projectile vomit…so to speak. It’s just bizarre.

“I don’t believe in God” doesn’t equal “I hate God”. To hate God implies that atheists believe he exists but disagree with him. They don’t. Funny, the choir here complains the atheists ridicule their beliefs, while ridiculing theirs. Sadly, this is what passes for rational Christian thought. Grow up.

Simcha - you just hit another home run.  Good job!  Keep it up.  It’s good to know someone else is on the same page as me.  Thanks. ;)

Proteios1, maybe you have only encountered one kind of atheist, but please don’t generalize that experience to all atheists. Have you ever heard the expression “the most Christian people I know who aren’t Christians?” I am blessed to have atheists in my life who are an awesome example of what we describe as “Christian”, and who could put many Christians to shame, people I would describe as “the salt of the earth”, and who have modelled “Christian behavior to me in ways for which I am so grateful. I feel genuinely hurt on their behalf by your description of atheists as “the most close minded ignorant people you will ever meet”, and your suggestion that they “behave the way a demonically possessed person would”. Please rethink your comment.

TXBlue08 is about as sophisticated in asserting her atheism as most American Christians are about their Christianity. Her reasons for raising her children without God are pretty much based on practical objectiions to a popular concept of God, as Simcha correctly points out.

The only reason to raise your children without God is that you yourself simply don’t believe in God. No further justification is needed. It doesn’t matter whether God is pictured as a vindictive Santa Claus, a demanding lover who ultimately punishes rejection with renditioning to hell, or an infinitely compassionate God-Man who Has a Sad whenever some stubborn human insists on damning himself by refusing to cooperate with God’s plan for salvation. If you don’t see evidence for a supernatural creature exerting its will from outside the material universe among the creatures of earth, it would be immoral to pretend to your children that you do.

TXBlue08 apparently felt very alone in her unbelief within her community, which was probably pretty homogenously Protestant (maybe Evangelical)Christian. She may not be aware of all the different concepts of God out there that are available to fulfill different emotional needs for believers. It is very interesting that most believers think it is perfectly reasonable for someone to be satisfied practicing the religion of his birth without doing an exhaustive investigation of the world’s religions, but an atheist is deluded for rejecting belief in the Protestant God and thinking that his work is done.

However I suspect TXBlue08’s rejection of religious belief goes pretty deep—all the way to rejecting the concept of supernatural influences in human life. I don’t think the Catholic God would compel her belief either.

Absolutely right on! Even more, what Christ’s resurrection teaches is this: that THROUGH the dungheap (rotting vegetative matter, a compost pile!) comes a garden, life.  Christ embraced death, the primary tool of the Enemy, and BY dying, brought life. Without death, without Christ’s death specifically, we cannot have life.

He said to love, embrace our enemies, and he did it. This doesn’t mean the enemies we feel good about; it means the ones that are actually killing us.

God ALWAYS brings good out of evil, even when we can’t see how it is possible.

This idea of our false understandings of God getting in the way of faith has always been fascinating to me.  I think all of us suffer from it, to one degree or another—our instinct is so much to desire to understand something, to comprehend it (encircle it with our minds), but the moment we do this with God, we have a false concept of Him.  I know Protestants are largely responsible for perpetuating false images of God, but remember that Catholics have also been responsible for this (Jansenism, etc).  No one is exempt, but the Church always guides us back.  I recently watched the second episode of Fr. Barron’s Catholicism series and I wish every atheist could see it, because he emphasizes what I think is so key to preventing our misunderstandings about God:  that God is not one thing among many, as though what exists is the universe plus God—many beings and a being who is most supreme among those beings—He is, rather, the basis of all being, and is Being itself though we don’t know *what* He is.  I think most misunderstandings about God are finally misunderstandings about His causality, which are based in misunderstandings about what He is.  When the author talks about how we guide our children, she is thinking that God would have the same kind of causality as a human parent has—when He in fact has a much deeper kind of causality that also does not detract from our own causality.  Simcha’s phrase “a vindictive Santa Claus” sums it up so well; it is what you are left with if you think of God’s causality as the same type as that of created beings.  Anyway, fascinating topic for me as someone who has been through evangelical Protestantism, atheism, and agnosticism.

This high level of discourse is stunning.  I noticed that on the ribbon, there’s a number for facebook “likes.”  At this point the total on this string is getting astronomical.  I never really used facebook, so I have no idea about how to register my fanatical approval.  Can anybody give me a shove in this direction?  Proviso: I’m a relentlessly private person and quail to think about getting all my personal information into a lot of online databases.  Is there a good middle ground?  Thanks for any help you may provide.

Rebecca, that was so beautifully stated.  Thank you.
@Zeke, I told my husband about the charming atheist who is not really an atheist that just can’t resist hanging out with us here…—Praying for you and your family :)...
@MattB, I let my facebook account go dormant after my last baby. I can see now, what a great tool for evangelization it can be.  It’s a great way to spy on your kids too, but not for the faint of heart. I can’t believe what they post on there.

anna lisa, I’ve been reluctant to throw in with facebook.  I had an online class where I did nothing but mock Mark Zuckerberg for creating what is in effect an ad-generating machine.  Then my sister ruined her marriage by getting into online relationships with all these flaky “friends.”  My wife would not be too keen about developing a whole list of “pen-pals.”  But the Holy Spirit has been calling and calling us to a new vocation, which we’re discerning little by little through prayer.  I’m really kind of a hermit crab, circumscribed by my routine and about 20 square miles of jersey swampland.  I’m not really interested in evangelization - I’m dead from evangelization.  I’m looking for that “Balm that lives in Gilead.”  As I read the various comments, I keep concluding that you’re the best.  Thanks for responding!

@ Simcha, I just reread this to my husband, who had a complete cow over how great it is, saying:  “That’s her best yet!  Please forward it to me!”
Thank you for answering that woman’s essay with such deep Truth and beauty.  It took me a whole day just not to be thoroughly annoyed by what she wrote.  At that point I was willing to blame things on those whacky televangelists in Texas.  Now I realize that atheism is trendy like what happened with Buddhism.  It goes well with a martini, at a cocktail party, especially if you can cop the perfect eyes at half mast “I don’t give a damn” hipster demeanor. It’s going to be hard to market the trend in Target and Kmart though.  I trust nobody wants a Hitchings or Dawkins fountain in their foyer.

Hi anna lisa,
What can I say? I have a soft spot for Catholics! “Charming” might be an exaggeration but thanks anyways. Always great chatting with you here, hope your 2013 is a great one!

What I don’t understand is Catholicism Ever hear of the Resurrection? The Vatican has convinced millions of people to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and thus believe they will be resurrected themselves. We will all die, but Catholics will be “saved.”
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Catholics don’t care who you are, how good or bad you are, or how many children you kill with an assault weapon. Catholics are perfectly willing to forgive you and pray for you, in a perfectly impartial way.
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It discriminates only between believers and unbelievers. It doesn’t want to take into account you and your circumstances. Religion always tells the same story. “It doesn’t matter who you are, or how many children you abused, I will always forgive you.”
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The Resurrection proves that God ALWAYS brings good out of evil, even when we can’t see how it is possible.

@Zeke, same!  Oh, and don’t get mad when spamnet releases my comment that atheists are the new Buddhists.  I was bored and cheeky last night because my husband was watching an action flick.
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@Matt, that’s very kind of you to say that.  I’m not seeing the “exhausted from evalgelization” part about you though.  You are clearly a wordsmith, and I sense a great font of talent and energy there.  Feeling demoralized comes from another source.  Cynicism is not for Christians.  As St.Paul points out, we are all approaching evangelization from a different point, with different charisms.  It took me forever to truly grasp that the simple actions I do in the banal execution of my duties are the most powerful acts I can do in this world.  This is why they made St Therese a doctor of the church, right? My bathrooms are much cleaner since I got on board with that.

anna lisa, I’ve always been more partial to Teresa over Theresa.  There’s a certain wisdom that comes with riding out under that andelusian sun.  The Little Flower is a brave soul, but an untested one.  I would have liked to see her function as a mother superior, and discover how her simplicity translated into secular administation. 

Lest this sound like age bias, I have a special love for St. Jacinta.  When my wife was very sick, sleeping on the couch as I tried to get some sleep in the bedroom, I clearly heard a young girl’s voice intoning the divine mercy chaplet over her.  When I came to see what this was all about, there was a prayer card of the saint, but no 9 year-old girl.  I realized my wife was close to death, and we took it from there. 

My “banal executions” are getting harder and harder to come by.  I feel like the tattered castaway on the Monty Python trailer who struggles out of the surf, surveys where he’s landed, and plunges back in again.  Not very Homeric.

But then again there’s you.

Od-VI, Nau

Evil happens to good people.
Evil happens to evil people.
Good happens to good people.
Good happens to evil people.
All people die eventually.
How do you tell the difference between the existence or non-existence of God?

@Andrew Rasin: By there being good and evil, to start.

Wow, VII, 2

I’m ready to start singing.  Wake me up with the dawn.

@Matt B.  You must keep your wife entertained.  I have to admit I’m partial to St. T. of A too.  Who can resist a road warrior who tells her more delicate nuns to “man up”?  But she also worked hard doing menial boring tasks, when she wasn’t waging all that Carmelite warfare. 
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Don’t let your spirits sag.  Onward soldiers!

I am very depressed, anna lisa.  I’m afraid only the Lord can pull me out of this one.  But thank you for you kindness and love.

You have a gift, Simcha.  Thank you for sharing it!

Matt B, don’t be depressed.  Even when we are sad, as in REALLY sad, we can take comfort that SAD has power…—Jesus, agonizing in the garden while his friends are sleeping. (Who will suffer with me?...) It is the work of redemption…“Women of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me…” If we could see our “sad” as we tend to it like a bonfire, we would cease to be sad. 
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Today I am crying hot tears, as I have lost my sweet baby in the 14th week.  Guess what?  I was prescribed ru-486 yesterday, to complete the process.  But I understand that MY reality is not God’s.  The life of this child is a “net positive”.  His soul is eternal.  My pain, united to the cross, is breathtaking, and the souls it saves, united with my sweet Jesus are eternal too.
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Feel powerful in your pain.

Thank you, anna lisa.

Anna Lisa,
I will pray for you!  Even though we’ve never met, please know that there are people all over praying for you.

So sorry to hear that Anna Lisa, hope you’re OK.

I’m so grateful, thank you!  This too will pass. :)

Bless you Anna Lisa.

Hell is very real folks. For example read the testimonies recorded in the book “Hell Testimonies.”

This book contains several revelations of Hell that God has given to various people around the world. These messages should be taken very seriously. There are many, many people in Hell right now that thought they were right with God but they found out at the moment of their death that they were not, because of sin and disobedience in their lives, and then they found themselves in Hell. Because of this it is eternally vital that you read these testimonies of Hell and to repent of any and all sins.

As God commands us in Philippians 2:12, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

I wish there was a softer way to give all these messages, but satan has been so effective at deceiving so many of us that I have to give these messages full strength as God has provided these revelations to many around the world. And it is God’s mercy that He gives us these warnings – But we must believe and act on His warnings – otherwise we will be doomed to Hell forever. And God is trying so desperately for our sake to help us avoid this eternal fate of torment.

If you discount or ignore these warnings then you will only have yourself to blame for ending up in Hell. God is trying everything He can to save you and to keep you. – But it is up to you to listen to Him, to believe Him, and to obey Him as He commands throughout all His word in the Bible – both Old and New Testament.

@Paxton Louis…Roman Catholics must be born again…

The original article was flagged as inappropriate with the option to “opt out”. The next day, there was an article in of itself, that this was THE most hit response with more than 600,000 (that six hundred thousand) responses. Practically everyone had an opinion, some against her, many for her.

As the nuns in school would say, converts are MORE Catholic, because we CHOSE.

Her very common, basic misunderstandings about God could be cleared up easily, if she’s interested. (…) Well, there have been whole books—whole lives—devoted to making sense out of human pain and suffering.  If the essayist rejects a trivial and petty God but is truly interested in getting some answers about how wise and holy people have faced these questions and come out with a deeper faith, then (…) she ought to read C.S. Lewis , or Immaculée Ilibagiza, or St. Augustine, or the stories of any of the martyrs.

As one who had similar kind of questions about God, and as one who DID read C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, pope Benedict, st. Augustine, st. Thomas Aquinas, etc. and did not clear those ‘misunderstandings’ by reading them, I kind of get angry when I read this kind of patronizing. All that writing of theirs comes down to ‘it is a mystery’. Geeee, what an answer! Yeah, really, how can anyone remain a nonbeliever after hearing such a brilliant answer. So, the situation is – I have read almost all you suggest to read. I still don’t like that God (which is an euphemism for – I got really sick and felt like vomiting when reading some of Augustine’s writings). Now what? I will tell you what my experience tells now what. Now nothing. People who sell these kinds of advices and assurances will keep selling them no matter what people who tried it testify.

BTW - Maybe vomiting is exactly what you need to do.  Doesn’t Augustine say that sin-sick eyes cannot bear the sight of the light - their chief good and raison d’etre.  Maybe you should feel ennauseated?  After awhile you might start to tell yourself, like the addict: “I’m sick of being sick.”

People are out there, happy and enjoying the legitimate good.  They’re transcending illness and death.  They’re optimistic in the face of bad.  What is their hope?  What is their strength?  How can they love despite disease and death?

Saintliness is not a matter of mere words.  Rather words are enlivened by the underlying truth.  To paraphrase Freud, “Sometimes a sunny day is just a sunny day.”

Talk about unfair.  I heard a legend about the great warrior Achilles, how he took refuge from the Argive host in the temple of Athena, amongst her devotees.  It is an obscure tale, but relish with dramatic possibilities.  I met with the gist in some college-era foray into the stacks.  Funny what you remember when the light hits the cloud cover at just a certain angle.

it seems very prideful for a human being to dare to judge God.