In his post, “Why Does God Allow Suffering?” Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker sparkled a lively discussion. Among the opinions on the combox was this articulate response from Beyond Blue Mia. Thanks, Mia, for making me think!
Thanks for sharing that powerful observation that HOPE is not “optimism” — indeed, it’s much sturdier and heartier stuff, having tasted full the bitter depths of darkness and yet still trusting the eventual return of dawn.
I was recently at a funeral where the Ecclesiastes passage — the whhhoooole thing — was slowly and deliberately read. The man was far too young, at 62, to die of cancer and yet he’d struggled with it a few years already. When it made a surprising and surprisingly swift return recently, he ended up having days left instead of weeks or months. And yet he had the grace of his far-flung family all around him, no real pain, good energy until his very last day. His family kept loving vigil for the last couple of days, being constantly present to him and each other, acting as “midwives” to birth him gracefully from this life to the next.
A couple weeks later, the family isn’t reeling but is still buoyed because the entire thing was SUCH a profoundly spiritual experience, for each person present, no matter what their personal and widely varied beliefs. It was exactly as it was supposed to be, maybe even as it was “destined” to be. The event, as sad as it was, was also rich with meaning and purpose.
My own view about God’s role in all of this remains the same. God is not a puppet master, giving to some and taking from others. God is not necessarily a scorekeeper, a cop, or an accountant maintaining some divine ledger — or if God is the latter, God forgives an awful lot of debt! Rather, God is both a wise parent and a supreme artist. As parent, God’s abiding love means we don’t always get what we want. Like a good parent, God knows that “No” is sometimes a necessary and loving response — like the parent who, wanting the best for her child, does not allow a diet of non-stop candy AND “allows” a child to fall while learning how to walk.
A good parent does not allow her child to live in a bubble, doing everything for the child and protecting them from everything unpleasant about life (including the natural consequences of a child’s mistakes or misbehavior) — “helicopter parents,” take note! — because doing so stunts the moral and psychological growth of that child. It’s keeping them in a cage that may protect, but which also deprives them of freedom. And that, to quote another, is “the most hideous form of child abuse there is.”
And speaking of freedom: The best writers and painters let inspiration lead them and then commit that spark to paper or canvass. They don’t control or renege. Just think, Da Vinci could have tinkered and tinkered and tinkered with the Mona Lisa — there’s ALWAYS something you can improve upon or think to add later — but their genius is in
letting the piece they create speak for itself, to have its own inherent and divine claim to FREEDOM. What’s created is poured from sheer imagination into tangible physical form — and the artist, like God, says “That’s good” (and thus “good enough,” which is saying a lot!) The artist lets it be, grants his/her creation its freedom to be in the world — just as it is — to have the inevitable ripple effect on hearts and minds.I feel God did — and does — the same with us. God respects our freedom far-far too much to take it back from us, even for a minute. Even at a planetary or molecular level, whether we’re talking about what naturally sparks a forest fire or sets cancer into motion. But when God does intervene — out of sheer love, or the divine glimpse of a larger purpose we cannot hope to see — THAT’s both miracle and exception, and the answer to prayers.
A relative of my husband testified, years ago, at the beatification of St. Padre Pio — having had his aggressive and inoperable brain cancer miraculously/completely/instantly cured while attending Mass with Pio in Italy many years ago. (The young man and his wife experienced an intense flash of heat/light at the words of consecration that nobody else noticed.) Later, doctors in the U.S. confirmed the inexplicable irradication of his tumor. You know what, tho? The relative eventually died in his mid to late 60s — of cancer. His healing was still a miracle, because it bought him the priceless chance to become a loving father and raise a beautiful family. But nature, temporarily abated, still needed to take its course — because that’s what the Supreme Artist set into motion.
The older I get, the more I appreciate that we truly are “wonderfully and fearfully made.” Leave it to God to create a being where mere positive thoughts are capable of creating more dopamine for our own brains, or an adrenaline burst enabling a mom to lift a car off her pinned child. Leave it to God to weave the ultimate truth of RELATIONSHIP — the divine fingerprint of the Supreme Artist — into everything God set into motion, from electrons orbiting in an atom to solar systems orbiting a life-giving star, relationship that we humans absolutely need with each other and are wise to have with our God. For
if anything mitigates the awful truth of unfettered freedom — which sometimes produces tragedy instead of triumph — it’s the God-given truth/gift of relationship, created perhaps to be freedom’s eternal twin. In relationship, we pull together to fight fires and cure disease — or comfort each other thru the hurt of divorce, disease, disaster, or death.
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