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| James J Tissot -- The Tower of Siloam |
The Gospel this week addresses a question that has troubled
human beings at all times and places. Why do terrible things -- both human
cruelties and natural disasters -- happen to some people and not others? Jesus
is asked about both kinds of case – the innocent people who were the victims of
Roman ruthlessness under Pilate, and the hapless people who were in the wrong
place when a stone tower collapsed. In an ideal world, surely, bad people would
suffer and good people thrive. Jesus expressly denies this. The victims in
these instances were not any worse than anyone else, he tells his inquirers.
But then he immediately adds that
everyone
is under God’s judgment. How do we put these two thoughts together?
The Jewish and Christian religions teach that the world in
which we live is under the final judgment and absolute control of a God whose
goodness and love has been shown time and again, ever since the deliverance of
the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. So many of the things that happen in this
world, however, make this very hard to accept. Where is the love of God in the Nazi
Holocaust, genocide in Rwanda, or in the earthquake in Haiti?
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| Fig Trees, Antibes Guy Rose (1867-1925) |
The other lessons for this week give us some pointers. But
they do so by underlining what real faith in God means. The lesson from Exodus
tells us that though God is indeed a deliverer, He is not some sort of
super-cosmos manager putting things right at our request, but the spiritual source
on whom our very existence depends – the great ‘I AM’. The Israelites’ inclination,
especially in the wilderness, to complain about God’s providence, is why St
Paul in the Epistle says that ‘they were all under a cloud’. He then gives us
this assurance. Though God tests your faith, he will not let you be tested
beyond your strength, but also provide the way to endure it.
What is that way? The Psalmist beautifully expresses the
only possible answer – the way of worship: ‘I have gazed upon you in your holy
place, that I might behold your power and your glory. For your loving-kindness
is better than life itself’. The parable of the fig tree tells us that nourished
in the right way, our spiritual nature can flourish, and bring us to the point
where the love of God’s goodness is sufficient, however life goes.
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