The Gospel leaves some major questions unanswered. How can God allow innocent people to suffer and die? It would almost be easier to understand a god who instantly punishes sins, but Jesus clearly distances himself (and His Father) from any such conclusion. Of course, this is what causes people to ask, “How can God allow innocent people to suffer?” There is some helpful biblical background to this issue in today’s first reading: the conversation between Moses and God via the burning bush. What God says to Moses is, “I have heard the cry of my people in their distress…I mean to respond to their need.” This applies to the distress of God’s people who are slaves in Egypt. God pledges to free them, but there is also the revelation of the name by which God chooses to be known: “I Am” meaning “the one who always is”. We can conclude, then, that God always hears the cry of God’s people in their distress, and always responds. The Good News that Jesus reveals is that He is God’s response to our need. In Jesus, God doesn’t take away human suffering; God shares in it. Every parent knows the impossibility of taking away a child’s pain; like every parent, God our Father shares the suffering of all His children. The death of Jesus guarantees this, and His resurrection points to the total destruction of all suffering, all pain, all sorrow.
St. John the Baptist PNCC
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