24. The silence of God (II)

In the previous chapter, also dedicated to the “silence of God”, that is to say, the apparent indifference of God to human suffering, we saw that the great argument of our faith in the love of God to man we find in Christ, in his birth, death, and resurrection. This is the greatest proof of God’s love, that it does not nullify the mystery or answers to all the whys. It is the ultimate proof, but not the only, as we shall see below.

But is the silence of God so deep? Does only the cry of abandonment of Christ on the cross break it? Or, in other words, is there no more reason to believe in the love of God than to behold the Son of God hanging from a tree?

We will begin to answer this question by the closest; what happens to us, ourselves.

Very often – almost always – the criticism to God for his alleged silence takes place before his own or another person’s suffering, and in the latter case, it can happen that the sufferer is someone very dear to us or someone whom we do not know but whose suffering affects us by its drama and extension (the case of a natural disaster, a war or a child…). In any of these cases that cause us to doubt our faith, it is often the case that we forget a part of reality: the existence of good, of the good, in one’s own life or the lives of those who now we feel sorry for and whose misfortune hits us. If I think I have grounds to protest before God by the existence of a serious illness, for example, I should also have reasons, in the most elementary justice, to give thanks for the times that I have not had the disease or for the rest of diseases that I do not have. If I accuse God of indifference to my pain for having allowed the death of a loved one, I should be aware that the life of that loved one was given to me by Him and that, therefore, I must thank Him for having been able to enjoy his company for the time that I had. If I complain of not having something – money, for example – I commit an injustice if, at the same time, I do not give thanks for what if I have; health, family… If I regret the existence of evil in the world and I hold God responsible for it, I should also hold Him responsible for the good; if I reproach Him because there has been an earthquake, I should thank him for the fact that, in practically the whole world, every day people wake up without an earthquake that leads them out of bed, terrified. In short, it is absurd and unjust to make up your mind against God by what is going wrong, making him responsible for it, without giving thanks for what is going well. If you are responsible for the first thing, you must also be for the second. In contrast, the vast majority, almost always, enjoy what is going well without remember God – who is the source of these gifts, but if you think of God to complain when something goes wrong and insult Him, accusing Him of disinterest and even cruelty. What would we do if someone behaved this way with us?

Of course, this reflection does not solve the issue. The mystery remains and the question remains open. Why would a God who is all-powerful and is love allow certain things? But, if we reflect on the above, we will have to agree to that God, whose behavior sometimes we don’t understand, is also the author of countless good things from which we benefit and for which we do not give thanks. It is as if a goalkeeper of a soccer team was reproached by a fan for not blocking a goal during a game in which has made 20 excellent blockss. It would be, simply, an injustice.

But the reasons for gratitude to God, the sound of the Lord’s words that speak to us of his love; they are not exhausted, not with the figure of Christ, nor with material goods, nor with the gift of the family, nor with the things that are going well in life. There is so much more.

For example, the moral light. Normally, Christian ethics are considered today as the major obstacle to the approach to the Church. Again, and again I hear say that, if the Pope was more flexible, if he were more tolerant, if he were more modern, more and more people would then go to church. When the question is asked to what concrete things are you referring, the conversation always descends to ethical considerations, often related to sex. As well, it is said, to attract young people, we should delete the sixth commandment; the fifth should also be amended – Not Kill-, allowing abortion, euthanasia and to the use of revolutionary violence; another commandment to modify would be the fourth, changing the concept of family, allowing divorce and even taking out the importance of adultery. But what would happen if the church paid attention to those voices? Would young people be happier, indulging in free love? Would society be more just and humane if it could kill unborn children, the elderly, the sick? Would there be more stability in families and, therefore, better educational conditions for children, if they are gotten rid of with ease, or if the spouses do not fulfill the promises that were made on the day of the wedding? Some of these questions have already been answered, because many societies, especially in the West, have already approved abortion, euthanasia or easy divorce. Are they more human? Are they more happy?

Therefore, we must make it clear that when God speaks through the Church and when he speaks in a correctly formed conscience, He is breaking that silence of which we accuse him and He is loving us in an extraordinary way. Moreover, we must also affirm that moral relativism is the cause of most of the pain in the world, because what makes us suffer is not losing a child from a disease, but by a crime or drug use; and it is worse for a woman that her husband leaves her for another one who is becoming a widow. In addition, thanks to the fact that God is not silent and tells us what is good and what is bad, we can, with His help, avoid evil and do good, with which not only do we not do damage to our neighbor, but that we do not harm ourselves.

There are even more gifts from God for which we must give thanks and help us to reject the accusation that He keeps silent while men are suffering. For example, the gift of hope, which is an immense gift that has its foundation in the resurrection of Christ; the hope assures us that there is life after death, with which the silence of God becomes less intense, whatever the pain; hope also helps us to live with the problems here on earth, knowing that everything passes and that, even the worst evil, can resolve well; hope helps us to maintain the serenity and peace in the midst of the storms of life. Another massive gift is the divine mercy that forgives sins. Thanks to it we can confront, without fear, the judgment that precedes the eternal life.