Hardly a week goes by these days
before we hear of yet another senseless act of violence claiming innocent
victims with their spilled blood crying out to heaven, “Why? Why are you
allowing this outrage? When will you deliver us from this evil? Why do you
continue to permit this evil to ravage our cities and our countries?”
It is not surprising that in the
face of so much tragedy, some people are giving up, some are losing their faith
in a God who were permit this to go on, some want to wave their fists and cry
out in rage to God or to the universe.
And of course, any statement
about the goodness and love and mercy of God is invariably met with charges
against Him, one of which I read in a paper the other day: “Good and loving
God? So what’s all this about starving children, or cancer, or ALS, huh? Is
that part of being good and loving?!”
We need pray that our faith may
remain firm in the face of such challenges and such dire realities, faith that
someday, somehow, God is going to make it right. But when? How long?
I found great consolation today
in reading the words of St. Jerome. In a homily on Psalm 75, Jerome quotes the
verse
”At
the set time which I appoint I will judge with equity.” (verse3; RSV
translation)
This is what the great
translator and scholar of the Scriptures had to say:
“The Lord is not judge now, but
will be later. If He were judge now, sinners would not be arrogant and gain the
wealth of the world. Is it a scandal to you that the just are in exile and
sinners persecute them? Does it scandalize you that wickedness reins in the
world? Hear the Lord saying: ‘When I seize the appointed time, I will judge
with equity.’ The time for judgment has been set aside. The present world is
not the time of judgment, but of contest.”
I hope this helps you to some
extent, as it does me, as difficult as it is.
God bless you!
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