Trust and the Experience of Evil
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I do not like the fact that I cannot control things or prevent or protect myself, my loved one’s or things I’ve worked for against evil, suffering or loss. In fact, I fear the evil that already has or could occur in the future.
Many of you experience evil and suffering: a chronic illness, loss of a job and financial insecurity, loss of meaning and purpose, loss of a child, spouse or loved one, an unwanted divorce, loneliness. Maybe you have been let down by men or women in the Church, or maybe you are afraid of the direction the world is going, the dangers it poses and what might happen in the future. Evil, suffering and loss can cause great fear, anxiety, anger and loss of faith in God the Father.
St. Catherine of Siena said to those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them: “Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man. God does nothing without this goal in mind.”
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CCC 303 teaches us: The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the protection of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history. The Bible powerfully affirms God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events: Psalm 115 "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases."
And so it is with Christ, "who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens". (Rev 3:7) As the book of Proverbs states: "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be established." Prov 19:21
The Scriptures teach us that God has absolute authority over history and the world. Nothing can happen except what God wills or allows. And even if He allows the evil of men, who cause great harm, God permits it out of respect for freedom and even more because God is so all good and all powerful that He turns all things to the greatest good for those who love him. This why Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children’s smallest needs.
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It takes faith to see the loving hand of God in all things. It takes faith because what I see, what I perceive by my senses and the way I understand things is not that all things are guided by the loving hand of God; instead, I see that people suffer random illnesses and death, I make bad choices that cause harm to myself and other and other people do the same. I see the evil that men perpetrate on others and the precarious nature of life of this world.
The life of faith is a continual struggle against the perception of our senses, the perception of our limited and fallible wisdom. But faith, and by this, I mean what Jesus has taught us, gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if He did not cause a good to come from that very evil by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life.
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In prayer today, God made it clear that He is in control of all things and there is nothing to fear. But as I struggled to see the bad things that happen or might happen in the future as things that are ultimately part of the will of God, my attention was drawn to Isaiah 45 (which I did not know at the time was also the First Reading of Mass today). Is 45 describes God’s absolute Primacy and Lordship over history and the world and so of educating his people to trust him.
Apart from me, all is nothing. I am the Lord, unrivalled, I form the
light and create the dark. I make good fortune and create
calamity, it is I, the Lord, who do all this.
Yes, thus says the Lord, creator of the heavens, who is God,
who formed the earth and made it, who set it firm, created it no
chaos, but a place to be lived in: ‘I am the Lord, unrivalled: there
is no other god besides me. A God of integrity and a savior:
there is none apart from me.
Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God
unrivalled. ‘By my own self I swear it; what comes from my mouth
is truth, a word irrevocable: before me every knee shall bend,
by me every tongue shall swear, saying, “From the Lord alone
come victory and strength.” To him shall come, ashamed, all who
raged against him. Victorious and glorious through the Lord shall
be all those who hoped in the Lord.’
So there is nothing to fear. However, Jesus did not say we would not suffer.
In fact, He said that unless you take up your cross you cannot be my disciple.
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We need St Joseph to teach us to trust God is guiding all things to good through all the people and all the events of life – regardless if we see them as good or bad. Joseph had to shut down his business and take his nine-month pregnant wife on a long journey, probably by foot, to Bethlehem because the Emperor called for a census to increase the taxes. There, his son was born in a cave and laid in a feeding trough for animals and that is where they had to live for at least 40 days. Then the King ordered the murder of his son and he had to take his wife and child, leave absolutely everything behind and flee to a foreign country and start all over again. Finally, when he is allowed to return, even though he wanted to live near Jerusalem, the new king still wants to kill his son so he has to hide out in a back water town. Talk about a life that was out of your own control. But, as the Litany of St Joseph tells us, during all of this, Joseph was the mirror of patience because he knew by faith that God the Father was in control of all things, protecting, providing and guiding all things to the greatest good. And Joseph trusted God.
Let us turn to St Joseph every time we experience fear, anxiety, anger, frustration or doubt in God because of what has or what might happen to us. Ask Joseph to give you his faith, his hope, and his trust in God.