IN CONSIDERATION OF THE GREAT ATROCITIES throughout human history I have always questioned the nature of God's goodness. Not the fact of God's goodness, just the nature of it. It's important because how I think of God's goodness is the basis of my trust and faith. If I am reducing goodness to a common human concept, something from a benevolent parent who looks after my every need, removes discomfort, provides for my every want or whim, then, naturally, I'm going to struggle with the nature of God's goodness.
IT BEGS THE QUESTION: While clearly such are good, and derivative of a loving, good God, are they fully representative of God's goodness? If so, what does that mean for God's goodness when things go south? What happens to our faith and trust?
LET'S GO DEEPER: What kind of heart does such unfettered provision foster? Think of families you know. Parenting styles you're familiar with. Compare children from families provided with "everything" versus those who were deprived in significant ways. Perhaps even those with a member with a significant health issue. Perhaps Downs Syndrome. How they turned out. Let's be honest. Do we find the Golden Heart more among those with great provision and comfort, or those who live with less so? (I realize this is a generalization, that there's something much more fundamental here, but it casts a light on the nature of real goodness and its formation.)
Having spent some time with those who lived in huts in third world countries, who would prepare a kind of meal we'd regard as ordinary in America, for them would be a month's wages, I know the answer to this.
Increasingly I've been blessed with the stories of extraordinary adult friends whose human, family and professional excellences were forged in the fires of real challenge. Privation. Suffering.
IN HIS BOOK "Tribe," Sebastian Junger chronicles the degree to which communal adversity fosters tremendous unity. Taps a kind of deep need for authentic human connectedness that, arguably, most Americans are missing. That in the past 15 years has reduced people to pixels. That, let's face it, was virtually shut down in the past year. Unnecessarily. Due to fixations on one limited aspect of human health.
I was just listening to a Richard Roll podcast where a Ph.D. married couple were conveying the tragic degree to which lives have been impaired and lost as a result of social distancing. Particularly those with Alzheimer's. 16% higher mortality rate.
Back to "Tribe." Simple examples such as "civilized" white men and women abducted by Native Americans, after living with them for many years, discovered and pressed to be repatriated, many chose to stay with their Native American captors. In spite of notable, existential poverty. A small price for them to pay for the communal, social, spiritual wealth.
SO HOW DO WE THINK OF GOD'S GOODNESS? How we think about goodness is how we'll have faith and trust in Him.
Let this sink in: People much holier than you and I have suffered much greater than we ever will. Most apostles and early popes were martyred. Tortured. Here's the kicker: They chose this. Or rather, they recognized a supreme, ultimate goodness that transcended our human circumstances. That was worth any price. Their hearts and minds were so completely beholden, so completely fixed on Something greater. Commanding the total devotion of their hearts, minds, souls, and bodies. For them, giving their lives was simply surrendering a lesser thing for a greater. They had the grace-filled vision to recognize this earthly landscape is but one grain of sand on an endless seashore. They recognize that we are just pilgrims passing through.
They recognized in everyday existence the Hand of God who custom-designed it as a kind of personalized retreat, meant for ever-deepening encounter with Him. No small aspect of our lives is inconsequential. Particularly the uncomfortable, annoying, aggravating, suffering. And ultimately, yes, death.
"Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. " ~ C.S. Lewis
BEING FORGED FOR SUCH A PERSPECTIVE was the purpose of Lent. The degree to which it's been forged in us is the degree to which it was successful. If, having navigated the 40 days we are simply equating the 50 days of Easter with a kind of decadence with religious overtones, if that's devoid of a willingness to surrender all earthly comforts, including life itself, we will have completely missed the Gift. In the words of Neil Young, the Heart of Gold. The reason and purpose Christ Himself took on flesh and blood, subjected Himself to every indignation and suffering, including death. The empty tomb would mean nothing.
INSTRUCTION FROM POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II (GO)
"The witnesses of the cross and resurrection were convinced that 'through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.' (Acts. 14:22) .... Christ has led us into this kingdom through His suffering. And also through suffering those surrounded by the mystery of Christ's Redemption became mature enough to enter this kingdom."
SO I'M PRAYING EVER DEEPER INTO ALL THIS. That my heart and mind be fixed not on a goodness I might want, but the goodness God is. Happy Easter!
