Fr. Richard OMOLADE

Ayomi was his mother’s only son, the joy of the family but one night after returning from his National Youth Service, he slept and didn’t wake up. Mrs. Janet was a dutiful wife, but at the least provocation, she would always be battered by her husband. The more she apologized, the more beating she got. Why do good people experience bad things?

Many people have reflected on this question from time immemorial expecting clear answer yet, we cannot adequately answer this question that continue to trouble the human mind. But certain things can be said, things happen, and they affected us deeply. Be that as it may, God is not responsible for all that we go through. Some have been caused by our circumstances, some by our own neglect and some events just happen, maybe to teach us some lessons or to teach others lesson.

Sometimes, bad things happen because we have not done what we were supposed to do. Sometimes, the pain we experience, is accidental. In this case, it is not difficult to accept the good that God can bring out of the ugly situation.

While God can always bring the best out of any situation, we often wonder why He would allow bad things to happen to us in the first place. God is a good God, a loving person and powerful to avert any ill or problem, yet bad things happen. People become ill to incurable diseases. Promising marriages end in bitter split. The poor who struggle to make ends meet get swindled of their hard earn income. Is this punishment from God because of our sins? If it is not and is due to the attack of the enemy, why would a loving God not deflect such suffering and pains from us? How do one find meaning in the midst of such pain? Yes, this is the kind of introspection we should engage in, not trying to force God to answer our questions.

To make sense of human suffering, we need to examine how best we can respond to suffering. People often respond to pain by a faithless resignation, such as “no one can help me,” “this does not make any sense”, or even “the devil is in control.” Hardly would people who have such views find meaning in suffering. They are likely to become bitter and detached from life to such an extent that they capitulate, and life ebbs our ever so slowly, until they become a shadow of themselves and die, unfulfilled, unloved and not healed. But we can use the suffering we see or experience as a springboard to a better life. Like trying to ensure that we help others in their sufferings.

Job is our guide in this type of situation. Job suffered, as we read the book of Job, we cannot accuse this man of comitting any sin deserving such atrocious pains and losses, yet we must acknowledge the fact that human life is not perfect, and situation will bring us to the limits of human existence and endurance. The only way to wholeness, healing, and peace, is to allow God to be our guide, our lamp in the darkness and our strength in weakness. This is where faith comes in.

Faith is the disposition to trust in God’s efficacy because we know He loves us and wants the best for us.

 

This should give us hope and brighten our days. Kushner said that “If you ever wonder why bad things happen to good people, it is because God knows they are capable of handling it.” You are far stronger than you think, and limit situations bring the best out of us. On looking at it in a different light, at one time or the other, everyone suffers, everyone experiences a situation they thought they don’t deserve. Some will be crushed by it, and some will be shaped by it, so our response to bad things make a world of difference.

A Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said that “In the final analysis, the question of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.” It is our opportunity for grow, our opportunity to be graced and then become a source of blessing to others by the way we help those afflicted like we have been.

Can we make the best out of our situation? Yes, but we have to get ourself first and conquer what we consider bad. Once that is done, life will take on a new meaning and the purpose of that suffering or pain will become clear. But if you are content to keep asking why? You will not be able to live, help yourself or others and you will not be able to find meaning around you or in God. Life may be about to stop, and we cannot allow that. When bad things happen is our chance to cease life afresh to proclaim, “I am alive, I can deal with this” and to allow your strength of character to change not only you, for better, but everyone around you. Are you still brooding?