Over
the years the phrase: “Everything happens for a reason,” has been tossed around
as if it is a scriptural truth. It is not.
And it is not sound Christian theology. It smacks of predestination and
a belief in fate.
In
the face of a tragic death I have heard people say: “God needed another angel
in heaven.” (By the way, people do not become angels) “It was God’s will.” “It
was her time to go.” “God is trying to teach us something.” “Everything happens
for a reason.”
None of these are scriptural or theologically sound. And most
people experiencing grief or going through a difficult time DO NOT find those
words consoling or helpful. In fact they can be very hurtful and infuriating. I
realize people are intending to comfort or help someone find a meaning to the
suffering, but in reality these statements will not work.
We
want easy answers to life’s difficulties. People often say these things when
they have absolutely no idea what someone is experiencing. Or else they simply
say them because they have not thought them through to the logical conclusion
that it implies that God is not a God of love, but a bizarre god who is so unpredictable
that he will kill and maim but all in the name of being good to us. (Think it
through). This completely removes God’s grace and love from the picture of
faith, and certainly leaves us without hope.
When
a man is murdered, if someone says to the widow, "Everything
happens for a reason,” she may well reply, yes, the man pulled the trigger and
killed my husband. But God did not will
evil. God does not will evil.
Or
what about my friend who committed suicide? Please do NOT tell me
that God planned that, or that it happened for a reason or that it was supposed
to happen. If you do say that, then either you do not believe in free will or
you believe in fate. Unfortunately what it seems to imply is that you do not
believe in the goodness of God.
When
an Evansville man killed a man in a drunk-driving accident, no one dared tell
the widow and the fatherless children that the death of the husband and father
was supposed to happen. It would have been hopelessly insensitive and cruel.
When
the terrorists attacked on September 11th 2001, we heard people say,
“everything happens for a reason.” Seriously? This is sadistic to suggest that
God somehow helped mastermind and plan this event where over 3000 people died. No
one would say that to the survivors of 9/11.
Or
in the face of a Tsunami or a tragic earthquake, it would be best if people did not try and explain how God had a hand in disaster and instead simply pray for the victims and help whenever and wherever they can.
Christians
who do not reflect on this simplistic answer – “everything happens for a
reason” are saying, in essence, that “somehow, someway this is the best plan
for you, God did this to you, but it is for your own good.”
Now
many theologians, not simply me, point out that this is a short cut to faith. But,
in fact, this whole notion destroys faith and hope, and ultimately charity.
(For if everything happens for a reason, then why should I try and help the
poor? Help the sick? It’s all God’s will. Right? Who am I to interfere with
their destiny? Using this line then enables us to excuse ourselves from helping
anyone).
I
am in no way saying that good things cannot happen or that by God’s grace we may
be in a certain place at a certain time, but that is a gift of Providence.
What
I want to prevent is anyone thinking that we are pawns on God’s chessboard. We
are not. We are not puppets on a string. We are not marionettes in God’s magic
playhouse. We are not mere robots for God’s amusement. We are creatures with an
intellect and a free-will and a soul. We are capable of choosing good or evil.
Yet
we still hear people say “God took him” or “God took her.” Or what about those
thousands and thousands of Japanese who died in the earthquake and
subsequent tsunami? I have heard people say: “Everything happens for a reason,”
or “God’s trying to teach us a lesson about how fragile life is.” or what about
this one: “God punished Japan for attacking Pearl Harbor.” This is clearly
ignorance unparalleled. How in the world could we have gotten so far away from
the truth? God never wills an evil. God does not inspire someone to murder or
get drunk and kill someone for some greater purpose. God does not mastermind an
earthquake.
Jesus’
answer to the question why do bad things happen is NOT because God zaps people.
It is because good people and bad people get hurt; we live in a fallen world.
People do bad things. Storms do what storms do. Hurricanes do what hurricanes
do. Tectonic plates move and cause earthquakes. Bad things happen. Good things
happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
Are you saying
that God kills people? Of course not. But if we go around saying “Everything
happens for a reason” then God must be responsible for every evil act as well
as every good effect.
Hopefully by now
you can see the reason why I have taken the time to passionately write about
this “everything happens for a reason” idea because it is “bad” theology, if we
can even call it theology.
Good things CAN
come out of the bad things that happen in our life. And God gives us the
opportunity to respond in a positive way. But if everything happens for a
reason is God’s reason, then that means that God is a terrible God who is
seeking to destroy our lives, this god is an unpredictable monster. The god
Moloch had to be appeased with human sacrifice. If we go on believing that
everything happens for a reason, then eventually we would have to say we have
no free will but are mere puppets of God in some celestial toy theatre.
But we believe God
IS with us. Immanuel means God is
with us. God will redeem our suffering, just like Jesus’ death was transformed
into the Resurrection. God can turn our pain and sorrow to joy. This is the
heart of the Paschal Mystery!
Saint Paul
wrote: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are
called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Nowhere in
scripture does it ever say that God is behind everything that happens. If this
were so, then humans would not have free-will.
Evil is evil.
Bad is bad. But we know that if we are in Christ, then even the worst suffering
cannot keep us from God; nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Again, Saint
Paul wrote: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? … in
all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. (Romans 8: 35-39).
This is what we
need to say: “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,”
rather than “everything happens for a reason.”
Some of you
might think of the man born blind man in John’s gospel chapter 9. The disciples
ask “Whose sin caused his blindness? Was it his sin or his parents’ sin?” But
Jesus replied: “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it
is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.”
Blindness is not
good. Jesus says that the man was simply born blind. But God’s glory can be
revealed in the blind man. But God did not make this man blind so that Jesus could one
day happen along and give him eyesight.
We believe that even the worst
suffering imaginable CAN bring forth abundant life.
The Resurrection of Christ followed Jesus’
Crucifixion and Death on the Cross.
We believe that New Life CAN spring forth from
suffering of any kind.
We believe that Goodness CAN come forth from
suffering, death, and destruction
God’s Grace is given to us when we suffer and when
we grieve in a spirit of faith.
Regarding human violence we know that God has given humans a free will. It is a sin when one uses his free will to do harm. Evil is a lack of good.
Thomas Aquinas commented on The Problem of Evil.
Since God is entirely good, He permits evil in his creatures because he is good
and he may even bring forth good from evil. It is due to the infinite goodness
of God that he permits evil; yet from evil he can bring forth good. God never
wills evil as a means or an end, but can use it as a means to the end for good
Why does evil exist? To this question… no quick
answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to
this question: the goodness of creation, sin, and the patient love of God…the
Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church,
the power of the sacraments, and his call to a blessed life. As the Catechism assures us: There is not a
single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the
question of evil.
God in his almighty providence can bring a good from
the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures…
From the
greatest moral evil ever committed—the rejection and murder of God's only Son, God, by his grace that "abounded all the
more," brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our
redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.
In the final analysis, things may not happen for a reason, but we can find a reason to go forth in faith when bad things happen.
"For we know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
