16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Simham)

WHY SO MUCH EVIL? WHAT GOD IS DOING

There is an old Jewish story told about Abraham. The patriarch was sitting outside his tent one day when an old man, weary from his journey, approached him. Abraham greeted him warmly, washed his feet, and gave him something to eat and drink. Abraham noticed that the man ate without saying a prayer or blessing. So he asked him, “Don’t you worship God?” The old man replied, “If God is there why should I suffer and wander like this.” And he started cursing and abusing God. At that, Abraham became angry and threw the old man out of his tent into the cold night air. Afterwards, God asked Abraham where the stranger had gone. Abraham said, “I forced him out because he did not worship you.” God replied, “I am putting up with him these eighty years. Could you not endure him one night?”

Friends, one of the questions that was asked from ages in the world is “Why there is so much evil in the world. And what is God doing with it? One of the interesting Argument from Evil comes from the Greek philosopher Epicurus, writing in the early 3rd century BCE:

Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot,
or he can but does not want to,
or he cannot and does not want to,
or lastly he can and wants to.

If he wants to remove evil, and cannot,
he is not omnipotent;
If he can, but does not want to,
he is not benevolent;
If he neither can nor wants to,
he is neither omnipotent nor benevolent;
But if God can abolish evil and wants to,
how does evil exist?

Friends, I ask you “What is benevolence?” It is 1) a disposition to do good 2) an inclination to do kind or charitable acts 3)an act intending or showing kindness and good will

So true benevolence is not doing good to the good and doing bad to the bad. No. True benevolence is being good to both good and bad. Allow both of them to grow and reach their destiny. Wheat to the barn because that is where it has chosen to be as wheat and the weeds to the fire  because that is where they have chosen to be.

But the question is; are you not putting your wheat at risk? Weeds may grow up and choke the wheat? But God looks at it the other way. First of all, He is thinks that it is the process of destroying the weeds that can harm the wheat, not so much the weeds themselves. Look at the famous prayer of Abraham to the angels who are on their way to destroy Sodom and Gomorraw. If there are fifty good people in the city will you destroy them along with the bad. God says “No. if there fifty good people, I will spare the whole city for them. Then goes down to forty, thirty, twenty and even ten. That is God’s logic. He does not want to harm them.

Secondly, look at the other two parables that fallow. Parable of the mustard seed. It grows and becomes a big shrub to accommodate many birds. That means, it is not the weeds that grow and choke the wheat but it is vice versa. It is the wheat that should outgrow the weeds. And the second parable: parable of the yeast. Again a small amount of yeast leavens the whole flour. It is the good that should influence the evil not vice versa.

How can wheat outgrow weed? By learning to be true wheat and avoiding intertwining entangling with the weeds. Let me tell something I read about a wheat that influenced the weeds. Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta. In February1994, Mother Teresa was invited to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast, in Washington D.C. Bill Clinton, president then and his wife Hilary were seated to her left, and Vice President Gore and his wife Tipper were seated to her right. This weak and withered woman mounted that national pulpit, and in the course of her address said this: “I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is war against the child…By abortion the mother does not learn to love and the father does not have to take any responsibility for the child he has brought into the world, and that father has likely put other women in the same trouble. So abortion just leads to abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want.” Apparently, as Mother Teresa spoke these powerful words, the crowd rose and began applauding. Soon the applause was thunderous. The Clintons and the Gores remained seated, staring at their linen tablecloths. When Mother Teresa finished, President Clinton stood up to offer his remarks. Here is what he said: “How can you argue with a life so well lived?” Here is a wheat standing tall above weeds.

As Christians, this is our calling–not to dread and curse about all the evil in the world but stand tall above it. Our calling is to be people of whom the world will say, “How can you argue with a life so well lived?” There was so much evil around Jesus but he went around doing good. That is our call. Our calling is to live humbly, patiently, and righteously, until the end of the age. Amen

Fr. Showreelu Simham