The Mystery of Suffering and Heartbreak

“Do not be terrified,” Jesus says to us in Luke 21: 5-11, “when you hear of wars and insurrections.” He goes on to say:  “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”   Where is God, we might ask. Some might believe that God is the source and cause of uprisings, violent outbursts that lead to murder, earthquakes, or nations warring against each other, of unexplainable illnesses and fatal diseases  rising in different parts of the world. God does not bring forth evil nor does God cause disasters of any kind. However, God witnesses all of these devastating events and weeps with us, agonizes with us, sends us "angels" to comfort us as He did for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when the leaders of his day rose up against him to put him to death.  As with Jesus,  God  gives us the strength to grow strong through suffering and not get stuck in bitterness and anger. Through the work of the Spirit within us, God enables to reach out in charity to those in need when disaster does strike. We are helped to grow in love and forgiveness and compassion ourselves. God never, never wills the destructive forces that come our way through other human beings or through natural disasters. That is not God's nature. God is love. God is mercy. God is compassion.

Jesus says to us in Mt. 11: 28-30:  "Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light." Jesus approached the disaster of His life, His death orchestrated by the Scribes and Pharisees, with this attitude of humility and reliance on the Father--that led to His exoneration in the Resurrection from  the dead and our salvation, as willed by the Father. We, too, will rise to new life--experience our salvation in Christ Jesus--through life's disaster when we hold on to our belief in Jesus' power to save us in ways that transcend the physical realities.