I asked my college students: "What is evil?" After the obvious answers like drugs and cancer, a young lady shouted: "papers!" I imagine her professors would respond back: " correcting your papers!" Evil is as devastating as a layoff during the holidays or as hurtful as a seperation, or as senseless as a hit and run on St. Paul Street or another murder in the city.It seems almost everywhere we are faced with its terrible reality. From where we stand it seems to be the end of the world. We feel scared, unsafe, on edge in an unpredictable world. We no longer feel secure from terrorists, family betrayals, or sudden, unexpected violence as we keep looking over our shoulders. We silently ask the question: “Where is God in all this evil?” We come to church or worse stopped coming to church because we had hoped to catch an answer and if there isn’t, we want to know “Where do we go from here?”
There is no simple answer to questions of God’s presence where evil so brazenly stalks us. However, I believe God unleashes a power to redeem what evil has spoiled. But here’s the catch, God has chosen to exercise this power through the most unlikely of creatures, that is, flawed human beings. Because of this tactic, it may sometimes appear as if God is losing the battle.
Everyday there are people who show us the way God is present in an evil world. It has always been this way but “rarely reported by the media.” The truth is that in this world of spectacular evil, God’s presence is silently here, only it’s unspectacular.
God’s daily presence are the volunteers who serve a Thanksgiving meal to the homeless, or a nurse at your bedside, or a family caregiver taking care of their parent with Alzheimer’s or a hug to our step-child. I told our college students that during their Thanksgiving break the "good" they can perform might be an offer to help with the dishes or play with their brothers and sisters or tell their parents that they missed them and thank them for all the care packages.
When you get a sense of being overwhelmed by so much evil, remember that like so many hobbits, there are countless, nameless people tunneling under the landside of evil. One day, they will break through. For in times of evil, the answer to the question “Where is God?” Softly, quietly, faithfully, your life, your deeds give the answer: “Here I am.”
Pray and reflect: ” My plans for you are peace and not disaster. When you call to me, I will listen to you and I will bring you home.”
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who have suffered evil in its many forms. Stay with us with your love and kindness. Stay with us when comes the night of affliction and fear, the night of doubt and temptation, the night of painful death. Stay with us and all who are yours in time and in eternity.
