How can God allow Plague?

I wasn't sure that I wanted to publish this, during this time of suffering. But this topic seems to be very much on everyone's minds, with lots of discussion going on. So I figured that, since I had already written it a month ago, I should go ahead and let you read it.

How can an all-powerful and all-loving God allow a plague? This is the kind of question that theologians and philosophers have haggled over for millennia. We call these issues "theodicy." And the short answer is: "Such troubles are an opportunity to for us to strengthen our faith." But to give such a facile answer does everyone, including God, a disservice.

We have to remember that this world is not ultimately important. It is only a test, an opportunity to build up our character and faith, and finally, a winnowing of the wheat from the chaff. We cannot see from the divine ultimate perspective, and thus cannot say whether either the reasons or the means serve the best interests of people or God. But we can be assured that He has the ability to be as careful as He should be to tailor each person's experience and give to them an adequate opportunity to seek the right path and relationship with Him. What He wants from us is repentance and a new resolve to seek his grace and will. He only wants us to turn and follow our deepest conscience, and desire a relationship with Him that will lead to our transformation.

God does not simply allow bad things to happen and get out of hand. Perhaps they are instigated by Satan, challenging Him to prove how He can be just and merciful, and care for us in trying times. But still, He has the power to turn everything to good for those who love, follow and trust in Him. If Satan reaps a harvest from among the unbelievers, deceivers and deniers, that is all they deserve, even though we may lament the loss of some good people who might have been saved.

Yet even those who are taken by the plague have had some opportunity to cry out for God's help, before they reach despair. We must assume of course, that whoever was sent to speak to them of the Gospel has done so, or they have been given a Bible, or heard a broadcast. That is a great part of the reason why we were given the commission to spread the Gospel to all the ends of the Earth, so that all who might hear God's voice and believe could be saved.

But when a plague, or a war, or any threat to our lives, is expected, we have a chance to turn to Him and appeal for rescue. If we do so, He is faithful to save us, even if that means taking us to Heaven. And often an even larger good is also served, as for example, when governments and society learn to make peace, or to be prepared with the means to care for their people, for the next time some disaster threatens.

This is how God touches each of us as individuals, according to our special needs and our relationship to Him.

* the faithful are held in his hand
   - we are reminded to pursue holiness
   - we are protected from calamity
   - our salvation is assured

* doubters are encouraged to join
   - agnostics are touched in their hearts
   - we are called to repentance

* the unaware are alerted
   - they receive a wake up call
   - the spiritual dimension is revealed

* unbelievers are warned & harried
   - atheists are frightened
   - refusers may be punished

We might object that some people live in societies that forbid the preaching of the Gospel. That is true, and it is sad, but there have always been places beyond our reach. We can only keep trying to break down the walls that divide us. Now, we have new ways and technologies to reach into those dark corners, with radio and TV. And we must encourage our leaders and politicians to use their influence and find diplomatic doors to open for cultural sharing, including the Gospel.

Or we might cry out for the baby souls who have never been given the chance to know Jesus, and that too is sad beyond words. But those immature souls have been suffering a plague of their own for generations, not just a few months. Let us not be hypocrites, blaming Satan for claiming young souls, when we ourselves have been rejecting them by allowing them to be killed before they are ever born. Abortion is a plague among us, and certainly is not acceptable in God's sight. We need to build many more orphanages, and make adoption a simple procedure.

But closer to home, what about restrictions placed on us, as part of society's efforts to stop this plague in our cities? These may be onerous, but they are temporary, and we should cooperate. Maybe you think that going to worship is worth dying for, but is it worth killing innocents for? We do not become martyrs based on our own stiff-necked insistence on disobeying authority. God has been patient with us to give us political authorities to govern our societies. They should be concerned for the safety, health and welfare of their citizens, and the people should be willing to obey those directives given to protect the interests of everyone.

If our leaders do really care for us, they should be willing to err on the side of safety and caution, even as they present a hopeful and optimistic message. God does not look at class, or respect persons, and neither should our leaders cater to the interests of the rich and powerful. But if we lack full confidence in those given power over us, let each of us do our best to discern what is right, and act to preserve everyone's health and safety. This is especially true when our failing to stay safe may become the cause for others to suffer and die.

We who believe in God should remember our history, even though we may not count ourselves among the Jews. In the early days, the children of Israel wanted a king to lead them, because other nations had a king. But God did not want to give them one, because human rulers can wander away from Him, and pursue their own desires. He wanted to be their only true and just King. Eventually, He reluctantly allowed it, and Saul was crowned, and he showed us why God was hesitant. After Saul came David, a shepherd boy who wrote psalms for God, and he was a great king, and though he sinned, he also prayed from a contrite heart. Only a few in King David's lineage truly desired to be faithful,  righteous rulers, and they had their faults. Still, David was the start of the Messianic lineage. In the end, the Lord God performed a real miracle, and his own Son became our One True King. If we accept Him, we are already citizens of the eternal Kingdom of God, and we know how we should love Him and each other, as He asks.

But, we must always remember, under all kinds of circumstances, that this world is not our real home. We belong to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, where Jesus Christ has promised us a home. Until we have come to the end of this life, and risen to stand before God, what we see around us in this world can only be an approximation of the world to come. May God grant that we will always be trying to make it better by doing our part to follow his instructions and love each other as much as we can.

Theological Musings: the Redemption

Christology: fully God and fully human 

The dispute between the Catholic Church and the (Nestorian) Assyrian Church of the East has been mended. According to the
"Common Christological Declaration" signed on November 11, 1994, by both Pope John Paul II, and Patriarch Dinkha IV, which reads in part:

"The Word of God, Second Person of the Holy Trinity, became incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit in assuming from the holy Virgin Mary a body animated by a rational soul, with which He was indissolubly united from the moment of  his conception. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ is true God and true man, perfect in his divinity and perfect in his humanity, consubstantial with the Father and consubstantial with us in all things but sin."

From which perspective, I conjecture:

Doesn't the fact that the Logos needed the help of the Spirit imply that He had emptied Himself (kenosis) of the infinitude of his divine powers (not to say that He set aside his Divinity, He did not) so that He could become human and experience what it means to be and feel human? So that, as He grew up, Jesus did not always have access to the miraculous potentials of God, or else He would never have understood our limitations. But then, as He grew to understand and chose to grasp his vocation and mission to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, then his divine powers came into their fullness. And then, his identity was confirmed to Him, and became observable to those who knew Him. Up until that time, only in small ways, as hints, was his true identity known to Himself and to his Mother (who fully believed from the beginning).

At the Annunciation: an interesting idea 

When the virgin Mary accepted her part in God's will, choosing obedience when she might have refused, she "balanced the books" that our original mother, Eve, had left with an indelible debit. By her simple obedience, she cancelled the original sin of disobedience, and thus conceived the Savior of the World. By this act, she crushed the head of the serpent who had tempted Eve in the Garden.

And this acceptance of the Divine Plan brought forth the salvation of each and every one of us, inasmuch as we have faith in her son, who grew up  to be the promised Messiah, Jesus, and whom we acknowledge as the Son of God. Indeed, this is our debt of gratitude, which we owe to our spiritual Mother, Mary, and for which we offer our prayers through the Rosary. Thank you, Dear Mother Mary!

Hail Mary, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

This also is why the Church teaches that Mary was born without original sin, because by her agreement to cooperate with the Holy Spirit she erased her original sin for all time, eternally, as ratified by the Holy Spirit in eternity when the Logos was conceived in her womb. By her willing cooperation, Mary became the Mother of God and the first human born without original sin since the Fall.

Her agreement acted to effect, and to confirm, and to show the effect of being born free of original sin. As an act with eternal consequences, it also happened in eternity, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, and thus was outside of the normal constraints of chronology.

In this way also, Jesus was born fully human (and fully divine) but without sin, and therefore not compelled to sin and fall short of God's glory -- which, of course, it would be impossible for the Logos to fall short, because He is God.

As the New Adam, Jesus could say, not "the woman beguiled me, and I did eat," but "the woman freed me, and I was born." Can there be any better accolade for a daughter of Eve, than to be praised for having erased the first disobedience? No wonder she was crowned as the Queen of Heaven.

But what is "original sin"?

I think of it as a stain, left upon our human volition, as a result of our being born human, the children of Adam and Eve. (If you insist on saying that we are ascended from the apes, it hardly makes much difference. It was God who raised us.) The problem lies in the fact that we can't obey the good and right dictates of our own consciences. We know, from the teaching given us by society, what is right and what is wrong. And all too often, we choose the wrong, or we stray as near to it as we think we can get away with. It is the inevitable result of once having satisfied our baser desires, which always reminds us of the pleasure and advantages of choosing what it now suggests. But it need not be the result of our own choices, rather it is ingrained into our ancestral constitution and wired into our minds, from before our birth. It is like an addiction, as if we know the thrill of using a subtle but powerful drug, and just as destructive.

Yet all of this is not to say that we must always be slaves to sin. It is possible to break the addiction, or at least to weaken its hold on us. That is what the Saints have done, with the help of the grace of God. And yet, society always reminds us of how badly we behave, even as it tempts us, and then demands that we follow the right path without any mistakes. The Torah and the Jewish Bible are particularly good as an example to show us the way that we should go, and at the same time shaming us with the guilt of always falling short.

And it is at this point that I must shift gears and assert that it takes a strong degree of faith to find the strength to combat these innate, and basically selfish, tendencies. Mere philosophy does not have the capacity to both inform and train our moral sensibilities, and to forgive and refocus our desires when we fail. If you have no God, your own rationality, and rationalizations, become your god, and you will eventually fail to rise again. But if you have found the One, Best and True God, who has revealed Himself through the scriptures of the Jews and Christians, then you have found the source of the strength you need.

And so it falls to us to adopt the mindset that finds it possible to believe. First, that there is a God, who created us and cares about us. Second, that He gave us the scriptures as a guide for our lives, and it grieves Him when we don't try to follow. And third, that Jesus came down from Heaven to become a man, so that we could know that we are truly understood and forgiven. And finally, that Jesus and the Father, God, can give us the Holy Spirit, to dwell within our hearts as a hope and a promise. Thus we can renew our strength, and pick ourselves up to keep on trying until maybe we will overcome our original brokenness. In this way, we may be transformed into His image and likeness as we were originally created to be, when we were still in the Garden of Eden.