I am taking a break today from my series of posts on evangelism. I was so struck by the words of today's Old Testament reading at Mass that I felt it important to write about it. As a pastor I often speak to people during times of pain and suffering. It is not uncommon for people to ask why God would let bad things happen. A few have even asked whether or not God was actually able to stop bad things from happening. When I try to explain that sometimes God actually causes some (apparently) "bad" things to occur, I frequently get shocked looks and sometimes outright denial of such an idea.
I always make a clear difference between God causing something, and God allowing something; one is active, the other is passive. Yet, I also point out that whether He allows it or causes it, He never does anything unwillingly. This is simply because He is God; nothing is stronger than He, and nothing can force Him to do anything against His will. That said, we also must acknowledge that God is all-knowing, and therefore everything that He either causes or allows is done because He knows it is for our best. He allowed Judas to betray Jesus, because His death and resurrection brought about our redemption.
With that in mind, look at the reading I mentioned above (Jeremiah 14:17-22) from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version:
17 “You shall say to them this word:
‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,
and let them not cease,
for the virgin daughter of my people is smitten with a great wound,
with a very grievous blow.
18 If I go out into the field,
behold, those slain by the sword!
And if I enter the city,
behold, the diseases of famine!
For both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land,
and have no knowledge.’ ”
19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah?
Does thy soul loathe Zion?
Why hast thou smitten us
so that there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD,
and the iniquity of our fathers,
for we have sinned against thee.
21 Do not spurn us, for thy name’s sake;
do not dishonor thy glorious throne;
remember and do not break thy covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Art thou not he, O LORD our God?
We set our hope on thee,
for thou doest all these things.
The prophet Jeremiah speaks of awful trials; death, famine, and apostasy (vs 17-18). Then he asks if this means that God has abandoned His people (vs 19). He points out that he is fully aware that the sinfulness of the people merits this very kind of suffering (vs 20), but asks that the Lord would show mercy in spite of this, reminding Him of the covenant (vs 21). He exalts the wonders of the almighty power of God, and then says that the only hope God's people have is God Himself because He "doest all these things" (vs 22) [the NAB says "You alone have done all these things"].
Notice the question in verse 19: "Why hast thou smitten us". Jeremiah knows that God either causes or allows all that happens. He does not leave his suffering to mere chance, and clearly acknowledges that God could end it if He chose to do so. The prophet is placing all power and authority in God's hands--and that is the very thing that gives him hope. Do not miss this most important fact. If God were not all powerful, He could not either cause or stop the bad things from happening; since He is all powerful, He is able to do both. In other words, the only way he can expect that God could stop the suffering, is if he also believes that God (somehow) willed it to happen. No, God did not will the horrible experiences because He wants people miserable, but rather, because in His ultimate wisdom He knows that it is for their good (as hard as that might sound).
This is not some random idea, or an isolated verse of Scripture that contradicts testimony elsewhere. Just because few are willing to talk about it (and you almost never hear about in homilies) does not mean that it is false. This is the unanimous testimony of more verses of Scripture than I can recount here. Jeremiah is not the only prophet who speaks this way (Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, Nahum, Zechariah, and Malachi are only a few who speak this way). The Psalms are filled with this idea (see Psalm 2, 29, 47, 66, 75, 110, and 135 to name just a few). There are long passages of the New Testament that outline this idea (for example Romans 9). I am not saying that I understand perfectly the concept of the sovereignty of God, but I am saying that we cannot deny it without denying Who God is.
Can we respond the same way that Jeremiah does when we suffer? Can we equally place our hope and confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as acknowledge that He either allowed or caused the suffering to occur? It is what our forefathers believed, but we often seem to prefer a "mushy" kind of God Who "wouldn't hurt a fly". The same deity, however, who "wouldn't hurt a fly" is not a deity that has almighty power or knowledge. That is not the God of the Bible, but rather the god of modern sentimentality.
Only the Almighty God, Whom Jeremiah says "can bring rain" is the God for us to "set our hope on". There is nothing that can give us more confidence in times of trial than to be assured that God is able to fulfill all His promises. As we read in Job: "For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands heal" (5:18); and in Hosea: "Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up" (6:1).
