The Problem of Evil
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain . . . and began to teach them, saying . . . “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:2
Deacon Lex Ferrauiola
I struggle with the ‘Problem of Evil’. That is the problem posed by the presence of the evil we witness in our world, and the question: “if God is really all powerful and all loving, and if God truly knows and loves each one of us by name, why does God allow evil and terrible things to happen?”
I mourned as I followed news of the unfolding Russian invasion of Ukraine, and learned about the vicious bombings of hospitals, residential neighborhoods and schools, and the summary executions of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. I mourned for the umpteenth time as I watched the breaking news and heard the cries of parents, friends and first responders after the shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, and Tulsa — the list goes on and on. And yet Jesus tells us, “Blessed are they who mourn,” — we who mourn — for we shall be comforted.
These acts of human evil are not evidence that God does not exist, or that God fails to love us; nor are they proof that God is powerless to rescue us. Life is a mystery, like a tapestry that we cannot see fully while we are in its midst. But God is with us in that mystery; God walks with us through the presence of evil holding us by the hand as we mourn, leading us to Resurrection.
“Blessed are they who mourn,” — we who mourn — for we shall be comforted. Someday, someplace, somehow, it will all make sense.
But in the meantime, while we are here and continue to follow the news and witness the existence of evil in our world, the Cross, the symbol of our faith, is God’s answer to the problem of evil. In the center of the Cross, in the center of the pain and the suffering, we find God in human form. The message of the Cross is hope. It tells us that we are not alone, that God is with us in the center of the pain and the suffering; and someday it will all make sense, there will be a happy ending, a Resurrection.
The Cross is a sign that God is with us in our suffering and that death is not the end. When we read the Passion and hear Jesus’ cry, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” we know that he understands what we are going through; that he is our brother in the face of horrible evil. Our brother, our savior who takes us — the temporary prisoners of evil — through the sufferings of life, who leads us to the joy of Resurrection, to a place where everything will make sense and we will see God.
The Cross is our comfort and God’s answer to the problem of evil. Blessed are we who mourn, for we will be comforted.
With love, Deacon Lex
deaconlex@nullgmail.com
Lex Ferrauiola is a husband, father, grandfather and a Catholic deacon serving as a pastoral minister and hospital chaplain within the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. His newest book, All Shall Be Well: Finding God Among the Pots and the Pans is available now.
$12.00 available at Amazon.com and through local booksellers (ISBN-13 979-8767368921)