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| Matthew 4:1-11 |
Last week many in our Mill Valley, CA community were rocked by the news that a Kindergarten boy in our town passed away reportedly from the flu. Anyone who has experienced such tragedy or suffering asks the question: Why? Why did this happen? Where was God? How we choose to respond to these questions that arise within us leads us toward a path of greater faith or distrust in God. There is no rational way to ‘explain away’ tragedy and the truth is that no one knows why natural evil (sickness/natural disasters/etc.) happens. Our faith as Christians calls us to have faith that God does not cause these things, that ours is a God who loves us and who in moments of pain and tragedy suffers with us. But then why does God not make sure these things don’t happen?
Today’s 1st Reading from Genesis tells the story of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. The take-a-way from this story is that God created us in his image and likeness which includes our free will. God did not make us to be robots but gave us the ability to choose freely; that is the only way we can love God. By giving us free will God also knew that we might choose sin, to turn away from Him. Adam and Eve lived perfectly in the Garden; God created a perfect world for man to live in, but their (and our own human) inclination to turn from God means that not only our hearts but the world itself is a little broken. By allowing evil to exist in the world God is not withholding his love but, like a parent who allows their child to begin to walk knowing that they may fall, is right there with us ready to pick us up and embrace us. Moments of joy and tragedy provide us the opportunity to turn back to God and trust in him. Part of our brokenness is that we can become distrustful. When we fall we blame God or believe Him not to be there. When a child falls he/she will always return to their parent, maybe this is what it means to have faith like a child.
Why do bad things happen? I don’t know. But I do know that God loves us with a reckless abandon and will never leave us. I also believe that God has no other hands to bring healing than our own hands. Our world is broken, but we as Christians are called to bring healing to the world, to transform the world around us until “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. May we bring God’s healing love and transformation to our world this Lent and, like Jesus in today’s Gospel, avoid the temptations in the desert to turn away from God.
1 comment:
Amen! Thank you for this reminder. It reminds my current prayer and reflection on the Canticle of Zechariah from Luke's Gospel, "and you my child shall be called prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, bringing knowledge of salvation to his people, by the forgiveness of their sins"(worded my memory, so it might not be exact)---what can we let go of in ourselves or daily life..what can we -for-give-for-God and others- to make room for His unconditional love = mercy...so that only Christ is the known reality?
We need each other to carry the yoke of life in Christ and make manifest His realistic love...and sometimes it is in the experiences that leave us asking the question..why?..that helps us to remember this need...most especially in prayer, with the wings of fasting and alms giving... in order to begin again... and to remember... how good it is to live in His tender compassion...another step further out of darkness and into the way of peace...closer to true thanksgiving...and a more authentically Eucharistic life... .....each little realized moment of God with us is a little revelation of our hope that never disappoints...happy Lenten journey!
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