Then Job replied to the LORD: "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know."     (Job 42: 1-3)

In this Easter season, we have rejoiced of our Lord arising, the first born of the dead (Colossians 1-18, NIV). What a wonderful time it is - especially for children with all the attendant fun the season brings: Easter bunnies, Easter egg hunts, and spring in the air.

My now almost three-year-old daughter Anne has immensely enjoyed all this and can't get enough Easter stories. But, however I try to soften these stories so as to be mindful of her sensibilities, telling her of the Lord's death and resurrection have raised in her mind questions that can't be quelled: why did God have to suffer and die for our sins? And why do we have to suffer and die too?

These are some of the most basic questions even a child can ask. As we all know, they're really hard to answer. Why, after all, is there so much suffering and tragedy in the world? Many, of course, have tried to answer these questions in what are called "theodicies." We may, like St. Augustine, take suffering and death to be the price of our free will, or, like St. Irenaeus, take suffering and death to be necessary for our moral and intellectual growth as children of God. Such theodicies, of course, lie beyond the grasp of a three-year-old. But even a thirty-nine-year-old like myself, one who often teaches college students about these and other theodicies, finds that they never seem to fully explain the extent of our horrible predicament of suffering and death.

Ultimately, my ability as an adult to comprehend suffering and death may not be all that different from my daughter's. I'm thus reminded here of Job who boldly questioned God about his suffering. I'm also reminded that God does not directly answer him. God rather dresses him down, gives him a lesson in humility, and teaches him that He has reasons that no finite being like Job, or us, can understand. As difficult as it may be at times, our faith calls for trusting God even when our comprehension fails us. And as Christians, we may take comfort in knowing that the God of the cross is not indifferent to our plight.

Dear God, strengthen our faith so that we may walk in your ways even when we don't understand the answers to our "Whys."  Amen

Contributed by Pierre
Sunday April 29, 2007
Liturgical Year C Week 22