 |
| Ivan Kramskoi's Christ in the Desert, 1872 |
Genesis 9:8-15
Psalm 25:4-9
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:12-15
As I hear the story of what
happened after the Great Flood and hear about Jesus being driven by the Spirit
into the desert where He was tempted by the devil, I couldn’t help but recall
those age-old questions: Why would God let this happen? How can a God who is
supposed to be good and loving allow suffering?
In the summer of 2009, I spent
eleven weeks working as a chaplain at Florida Hospital in Orlando. One of my
fellow chaplains was known for his desire to ‘find where God is’ in the midst
of things. I, too, reflected on that question, thinking about it as I was with
my patients and reflecting upon it afterward. But I found that it was often
difficult to see God’s hand in the moment.
When I sat with the father of a 7
year old boy who had drowned, I wondered where God was. As I sat for nine hours
with a teenager whose mother was dying and the family refused to come to the
hospital to be with him, I wondered where God was. As I sat with people in psychiatric
units and suicide-watch rooms, I wondered where God was.
In those times I wish that I
would have been able to see clearly where God was and what He was doing, but the
reality is that sometimes I just had to trust that the Lord knew what was best and
was bringing that to fruition. I couldn’t see what it was, but I knew that in
the midst of that suffering God was doing something special.
We hear that from the utter
destruction of the Earth in the Great Flood came a renewed covenant with the
Lord and new life on the face of the Earth. From the Lord’s temptation in the
desert, the knots of sin that Adam and Eve tied so many years ago begin to
loosen. And from Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion we have been redeemed and, as
St. Peter tells us, led to God. To our eyes, these sufferings often seem to be
foolishness and yet it is through them that the Lord brings about great things
in our midst. Who among us would think that the way to Heaven would be the
nailing of the Lord to a tree? And yet in the wisdom of God it is so.
In the end, the answer to the
question of how a loving God can permit suffering is, paradoxically, that it is
because He loves us that He permits
us to suffer. You see – salvation is wrought through the temptation, suffering,
death, and resurrection of Christ. The Father permitted all of those seemingly
horrible things because He knew what good would come from it, and Christ
endured it for that same reason. He knew what would come from it.
 | |
| Hill of Crosses, Lithuania |
As we endure sufferings in the
midst of our lives and as we endure temptations and sufferings in the midst of
this great season of grace, rather than lament these things, we are challenged
to see them as signs of love for us. Christ died to save our souls. But the
reality is that we too have a part in this great work of salvation. We, too,
are entrusted with certain sufferings in order that we might unite them to the
suffering of Christ and so gain grace for souls. The sufferings we endure, when
united to Christ, could be the source of grace that brings about conversion in
a wayward soul or lead a soul in purgatory into the Heavenly Banquet. The
sufferings we endure, when united to Christ, can be given to us to help someone
else in the future who suffers a similar cross. The sufferings we endure, when
united to Christ, can be preparation for a larger cross later under which we
would buckle if not first strengthened. To our eyes, especially in the midst of
those sufferings, it often seems foolishness. And yet, with faith we know that
God is with us in the midst doing something that we may never know but which
will certainly be a source of much grace.
As we enter into this season of
Lent, let us not endure temptations for the sake of enduring temptations.
Rather, let us unite our temptations and sufferings to the Lord that He might
make use of them and pour upon the Earth not a Great Flood of water but a Great
Flood of Grace.
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Your faithful,
and enkindle in them
the fire of Your love.
Send forth Your
Spirit, and they shall be created,
And You shall renew
the face of the earth.
“Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.” - St Rose of Lima
ReplyDelete