For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/092808.shtml
Mary, Queen of Vocations, pray for us!
How's this for irony? 96% of Americans believe in God, but new books on atheism are always near the top of the best seller lists. Does this seem strange to you? Well, it doesn't seem strange to me because I am part of the irony. I love to buy the latest writings of atheists, as well as the latest Catholic apologies, in order to compare and to contrast the two. Yes, that is right, a priest who has been given a great faith in God gets a kick out of the latest atheistic literature. Now it is not so much that I just have to know what the enemy is up to, or that I think it is fun to dance with the devil. It is more that I like the exercise of encountering new arguments, of which there are few, or old arguments dressed up into supposedly more compelling rhetoric. I like seeing if the new authors can push my buttons in just such a way that I am forced to find a new way of explaining why I do find it reasonable to believe in God, and why I do find God to be good. There are the arguments regarding faith as being unreasonable, especially faith in dogmas like the Resurrection. There are arguments against God made on the evidence of how divisive and hypocritical religion is, something that St. Paul is chastisting the Philippians for in today's second reading. Most pertinent to today's first reading, however, are arguments that God is not good or not fair or not omnipotent, for if He were, there would not be no evil or suffering or death in the world. The argument, put simply, is that if God existed, the world would be perfect, or at the very least, only the guilty would suffer, not the innocent.
I guess this argument has never held much weight with me, first of all because I believe that it is more perfect to create man free, even allowing Him to commit evil, than to have a world where there is no evil but also no real freedom. While I think there is plenty of suffering around us that is hard to understand, and oftentimes we do not arrive at satisfactory answers for the suffering of the innocent on this side of heaven, I do think the world would make even less sense if evil persons were able to live forever. In other words, even though we do not always understand why the innocent have to die, or why all people inherit the sin of Adam whose punishment is death, the world would make a lot less sense if evil people were allowed to live forever, doing harm indefinitely without fear of God's justice. The Israelites in today's first reading are questioning God's justice, ostensibly the punishment of death that all men inherit. The Lord responds by saying that the ways of the Israelites are not fair, if they expect Him to allow them to live forever while remaining selfish and unfaithful.
Regarding the suffering and death of innocent persons, it does seem that this is one of the strongest arguments against God. God could remain good and just, couldn't He, without allowing all people to fall into suffering and death, but just the wicked people. I think people read the writings of the latest most popular atheistic writers seeking new ways of thinking about suffering that is difficult to understand, even if it means suspecting God of perhaps not being as good as we have been led to believe He is. St. Paul in today's second reading to the Philippians, however, gives us precious insight into seeing how even the suffering of the innocent is not a strike against the goodness of God. St. Paul invites the Philippians to humbly regard others as more important than themselves, in imitation of Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave. This point is critical if we are to remain convinced of God's goodness in the face of difficulty and suffering. St. Paul shows us clearly that Jesus, who had the life we sometimes dream of having, being in the form of God, not liable to suffering and death, chooses to abandon this form in favor of the form of a slave who must die a humiliating death. In so doing, Jesus reveals the fullness of God's divine love, a self-emptying love that humbly seeks the good of others, and finds something worth dying for. Jesus chose to die for us while we were still sinners, and thus shows us that what makes God good is not his rearranging things for us so that we can all go back to the Garden of Eden and sip margaritas together. No, what makes God good is that He chose to die for us, and calls us to be good in this way, using the power and example of Christ Jesus. God is good because through His Son He defines a life worth living as more than avoiding the land mines that threaten us, but as the opportunity to use our freedom to choose a way of suffering and dying that will bring meaning to our lives and life to others, including our enemies who trespass against us. God is good because He shows us how to choose suffering and death like His Son before suffering and death choose us! In other words, even though it is hard to understand why suffering and death befall the innocent, even the innocent are not resigned to victimhood, but can choose to suffer for something beyond themselves, or join the suffering that befalls them to the suffering of Christ, who though not subject to death chose to die so that sinners like you and me might have life. +m
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