HOMILY FOR THE 19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A. (2)

HOMILY FOR THE 19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A.

THEME: WHERE IS GOD WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN?

BY: Fr. Gerald M. Musa.

“When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by Harold S. Kushner is a real story published in 1981. Kushner writes from a personal experience, having faced the heartbreaking challenge of his own son’s premature death due to a rare disease called progeria. Rabbi Kushner wondered how a God who is both all-powerful and all-loving could allow innocent people to suffer, especially if they have led righteous lives. It was a struggle for him to understand why God took away his son. He asked many questions in his dark days of grief. Despite his questioning, Kushner ultimately portrays God as a source of comfort and solace in those challenging days of sorrow. The experience of Kushner led him to see faith as the capacity to trust in God’s presence even in the face of suffering and that mature faith acknowledges the complexities of life while maintaining a deep connection with God.

Where is God when bad things happen? This is a confronting and tough question that people who believe in God seek to answer. This question comes very strongly during calamities and disasters. Our image of God changes for better or worse in moments of anguish, pain, loss, grief, tragedy or catastrophe. In the dark days of life, people tend to embrace their faith more strongly or simply walk away and give up their faith. Others remain confused and lukewarm, not knowing exactly what to do in moments of intense trauma. Where is God when people are killed with impunity in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? where is God where terrorists are unleashing terror and shedding the blood of their compatriots? where is God when people are suffering from painful and terminal diseases? Where is God in the midst of economic hardship and social crises?

Good people suffer pains and tragedies and this brings us to another age-old question: “Why do good people suffer?” There are no easy answers as to why these tragedies happen. For example, Elijah was a good man with a high reputation among his people. He was a worker of miracles who convinced his people to turn away from idols and return to Yahweh, God of Israel. He preached about faithfulness to Yahweh and had many confrontations with a wicked and unjust king Ahab. Ahab was determined to kill him and he hid in a cave for safety. Elijah was so vulnerable that his people must have been asking, “Where is your God?” The people could not understand why a good man of his status should suffer humiliation at the hands of a mere mortal. Has his God failed? Elijah himself was in a state of despair. He complained with a loud voice: He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10). He was deep in the valley of frustration and honestly requested death. He said: “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life (1 Kings 19:4).

We hear the apostle Paul voicing his own deep frustration when his effort to convert his fellow Jews was not yielding good results. He says: I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh (Romans 9:2-3).

God communicated to Elijah during his moment of depression in symbolic ways. He reached out to him through natural elements air, fire, and earth (aria, ignis, and terra). Yes, he speaks through nature.

A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire—but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.

In these symbols God must have been saying to Elijah: “You think of me as a destructive fire, but I am the gentle fire of the Holy Spirit that inspires passion, enlightens, that gives energy.” “You think of me as a devastating wind, but I am the wind which is the breath of life, the fresh air of the atmosphere that changes seasons. “You think of me as a catastrophic earthquake, but I gently reside in the land that produces the fruits of the earth.

Come to think of what meaning life is when it is all about pain; and on the other hand, what meaning will life make when we are always comfortable? Even though God does not send evil but he permits it in his wisdom. He allows evil to afflict the comfortable, and in his goodness and mercy, he comforts the afflicted. We have to come to terms with the fact that we live in a world where order and disorder co-exist. In his book The Problem of Pain, the prominent author C. S. Lewis wrote, ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’

God steps in many times and saves us from destruction. Everyone can count the number of times when he/she escaped death by the whiskers. When we see a terrible accident occur, with vehicles squeezed beyond recognition and passengers coming out unhurt, we forget to give credit to the omnipotent God who intervenes and saves. Our most interesting personal, family and community stories are always about how we got out of a dark and gloomy tunnel of life. These stories are often about how God turned some hopeless situations into happy ones or how one disappointment or the other turned out to be a blessing. Paul rightly says our present troubles cannot be compared with the glory that comes after (Romans 8:18). Jesus is a personification of the image of God who is gentle, loving and one who cares and saves. He stepped in to help many people. He came to the rescue of his disciples who were caught in stormy waters and he stretched out his hands to save Peter from the drowning. “Peter was sinking because he was overtaken by fear. Elijah was hiding in the cave because he was also engulfed by fear. In their moment of crisis, the Lord was with them, but they could not see him. Sometimes, in our moments of prayer, we call on the name of the Lord and when he comes, our minds are far away from our prayers. Sometimes in the midst of our prayer, we find our minds travelling from Angola to Z and from Alabama to Yokohama.” Psalm 103:8 Paints the true picture of God: He is compassionate, gracious and abounding in love.

1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33; 19th Sunday, Year A.

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