As hurricane Irene bears down upon us, Mass was packed at 5 P.M. with those who know that Irene will prevent anyone from going tomorrow. The question on everyone’s lips, as many in my parish were mandatorily evacuated from their homes, was “WHY?”
Why does God permit these things to happen? Why the destruction, the hardship? Why doesn’t He spare us? Father’s answer was not entirely clear or satisfactory to most. Thinking about it on the way home, I came at it from several perspectives.
Droughts are good for killing certain infectious microbes in an area. Forest fires similarly wipe away threats, and renew the face of the earth. Out of the fertilizing ashes of the old, comes new and hardy life. Volcanic eruptions perform similar renewing effects. Hurricanes end droughts and replenish reservoirs for city dwellers. Earthquakes result from the shifting plates of the earth’s crust.
All of these events are a part of the earth’s own life cycle. They help to renew the face of the planet, and in the long run, they actually support life. In the process, however, people die. People are left homeless and without food. They are injured and frightened. These are the issues upper-most in people’s minds.
Earlier today, the following wryly humorous posting began making its way around my FaceBook community:
As Hurricane Irene prepares to batter the East Coast, federal disaster officials have warned that Internet outages could force people to interact with other people for the first time in years. Residents are bracing themselves for the horror of awkward silences & unwanted eye contact. FEMA has advised: “Be prepared. Write down possible topics to talk about in advance. Sports, the weather, etc. Remember, a conversation is basically a series of Facebook updates strung together.”
There is much truth in this.
Perhaps God permits tragedy to call us out of ourselves, to give us the opportunity to escape our insularity and see His face in those of our needy brothers and sisters. I think of 9/11 and its aftermath, of the tsunami of love and support that washed over New Yorkers as nothing I’d ever seen before. The nation and the world dropped all and dropped to their knees in prayer. They gave to the widows and orphans of 9/11 in money and material that simply overwhelmed us.
We are a crusty, hard-bitten lot here in this city. We’re impatient and love to show that impatience with our embarrassingly aggressive driving. Yet, for months afterward, New Yorkers were actually courteous behind the wheel! Even more alarmingly, we were deferential!!! Tragedy slowed us down and allowed us to share in our common humanity.
Sometime around January 2002, the city began to heal from the trauma, as evidenced by the blaring horns and the return to shorter tempers. I have always wondered, though, which was the true healing; the kindness or the blaring horns and aggressive driving?
It tends to refocus the question from this evening and redirect it. The question isn’t why God permits tragedy. He does so to help us regain the best of our humanity.
The real question is why the lesson is so short-lived?
Coming Home 
I really hate this question, the question of evil. I think your answer is a really good one…and yet. And yet, if my children or my husband were killed in the WTC or a hurricane, I don’t think that the idea that the situation which killed them helped others regain the best of their humanity would bring me any solace at all.
I know that’s a pretty self-centered way of looking at it, and I actually think it is the wrong way of looking at it and hope that if it happened to me I would be able to take solace in what you say, but when I look at it like that I can understand why so many people find it difficult to reconcile a loving God with tragedies which destroy lives.
I don’t really know what the point of this comment is except to say that I like your answer, even if I understand those who can’t overcome this hurdle. This is the one thing that would have kept me from the Church if so much more hadn’t driven me home.
Calah,
I understand exactly where you are going with your comment. Perhaps it would help if we considered what would happen if God prevented all tragedy, if He prevented all need. I think it would accelerate our selfishness and greed, the complete focus inward.
Paradise is where there is complete protection from harm and want. Yet, I can’t escape the question of what demands will be placed on us in Heaven, if learning to love (sacrificially) is one of the great requirements for admission. If there were no need here on earth, given our sinful proclivities, I think we’d be in pretty bad shape.
Dr Gerard, you know I love your blog but this blog is especially insightful! I ended up sending the link to several of my groups and posting on FB…thank you so much for your insights! Totally awesome blog!!!!!!!
God doesn’t allow evil or destruction to happen to us, we do. We FORGET to pray, praise God, believe in God, serve God, believe in Jesus Christ being the Son of God. We back away from our heritage as children of God and his protection as Creator, Savior and God! Yes, NATURE, is a creation of God, but, without God’s intervention, Nature is on it’s own path. What intelligent person can deny the natural order of the earth? And what sane person can deny God’s interventions in that process? God created the universe, then God created the creatures on Earth. Who knows what else he created out there somewhere? We will all understand it bye and bye. Tonight I am praying for all of those in the path of Irene, Amen.
Thanks, Sue!
Perhaps we all need to suffer more. Who of us is so holy that we don’t need penance? This country is long overdue for it’s many sins, especially abortion, and now rampant homosexuality. Most of the civilizations that have perished have in the end rampant sodomy!
Check it out, beginning with Sodom and Gomorra.
I feel like I ask WHY? all too often. Then I ask myself why not? I’ll never understand God – this is what faith is.
But still, don’t we seem to do this when this are bad, not good.
I need to be more holy!
My understanding is that when Adam and Eve fell, so did all of creation; that the world God intended was one where injury and death would not have been present. Because of man’s original sin, nature, like men, truly is on it’s own path, only to be redeemed by Jesus Christ, who redeems not only our souls, but all of creation as we know it. Thus, when Christ returns, the lion will again lie with the lamb, and creation will again be the unimaginable glory once intended by God.