{"id":1412,"date":"2012-12-29T09:30:29","date_gmt":"2012-12-29T14:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/notstrictlyspiritual.com\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2022-11-01T16:01:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T20:01:43","slug":"why-god-a-priest-offers-an-honest-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notstrictlyspiritual.com\/uncategorized\/why-god-a-priest-offers-an-honest-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Why, God?’ A priest offers an honest answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In these days of dark and light, suffering and joy, this recent New York Times<\/em> op-ed by a priest via Maureen Dowd is definitely worth the read:<\/p>\n

How does one celebrate Christmas with the fresh memory of 20 children and 7 adults ruthlessly murdered in Newtown; with the searing image from Webster of firemen rushing to save lives ensnared in a burning house by a maniac who wrote that his favorite activity was \u201ckilling people\u201d? How can we celebrate the love of a God become flesh when God doesn\u2019t seem to do the loving thing? If we believe, as we do, that God is all-powerful and all-knowing, why doesn\u2019t He use this knowledge and power for good in the face of the evils that touch our lives?<\/p>\n

The killings on the cusp of Christmas in quiet, little East Coast towns stirred a 30-year-old memory from my first months as a priest in parish ministry in Boston. I was awakened during the night and called to Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital because a girl of 3 had died. The family was from Peru. My Spanish was passable at best. When I arrived, the little girl\u2019s mother was holding her lifeless body and family members encircled her.<\/p>\n

They looked to me as I entered. Truth be told, it was the last place I wanted to be. To parents who had just lost their child, I didn\u2019t have any words, in English or Spanish, that wouldn\u2019t seem cheap, empty. But I stayed. I prayed. I sat with them until after sunrise, sometimes in silence, sometimes speaking, to let them know that they were not alone in their suffering and grief. The question in their hearts then, as it is in so many hearts these days, is \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

The truest answer is: I don\u2019t know. I have theological training to help me to offer some way to account for the unexplainable. But the questions linger. I remember visiting a dear friend hours before her death and reminding her that death is not the end, that we believe in the Resurrection. I asked her, \u201cAre you there yet?\u201d She replied, \u201cI go back and forth.\u201d There was nothing I wanted more than to bring out a bag of proof and say, \u201cSee? You can be absolutely confident now.\u201d But there is no absolute bag of proof. I just stayed with her. A life of faith is often lived \u201cback and forth\u201d by believers and those who minister to them.<\/p>\n

Implicit here is the question of how we look to God to act and to enter our lives. For whatever reason, certainly foreign to most of us, God has chosen to enter the world today through others, through us. We have stories of miraculous interventions, lightning-bolt moments, but far more often the God of unconditional love comes to us in human form, just as God did over 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

Continue reading HERE.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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