It was just about this time that some people arrived and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he (Jesus) said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than any others, that this should have happened to them? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did."
- The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 13, verses 1-5, from The Catholic Online Bible
I'm not one to thump. I have officially described myself for years as a "semi-agnostic Jesuit-trained lapsed Catholic" - though as a regular churchgoer, I'm a lot less lapsed than most, to the point of being "active". (Maybe that description is due for revision.)
This has always been one of my favorite passages in the Gospels, for reasons pointed out by our parish priest (whom we share with four other parishes) the last time this reading came up: this is considered the "current events" Gospel, where Jesus is hanging out discussing the news of the day with some people.*
This was the passage that came to mind in the days following September 11, 2001, when so many neo-Christians came out announcing the reasons why the towers had fallen, or after Katrina devastated New Orleans, when so many smugly assured us why this sinful city had been brought low. But Jesus assures his audience, as he does elsewhere in the Gospels, that bad things happen to the just and the unjust alike. Not a sparrow falls without God's knowledge, but sparrows fall nonetheless.
Yesterday something horrible happened. That this bridge collapse in Minnesota was not more horrible than it is turning out to be is simply amazing. But this morning I heard the usual stuff on the news, the stuff that could easily be expected: the school bus that did not fall into the river is considered a "miracle"; one survivor** told his tale of coming to a stop twenty feet from the edge of the bridge, and the anchor responded "Wow, someone sure was looking out for you!"
So what does this imply for the folks who died? Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins and friends and lovers, crushed and drowned and mangled in the waters of the Mississippi? Why did they miss the "miracle" cut? Why wasn't anybody looking out for them?
It wasn't a miracle that some people didn't die in this tragedy, any more or less than it's a miracle when a baby is born, or the sun comes up in the morning. Miracles weren't being doled out selectively as people plummeted to their deaths. Angels weren't preferentially applying brakes for people they happened to be watching over. Tragedies happen. People die. These things happen. Try to be ready when your time comes.
Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem?
*It also helps to squelch the image of Pontius Pilate as a Roman functionary who was a victim of circumstances, caught between political obligations and the demands of the local leaders he was trying to keep under control; here he comes across as quite creatively bloodthirsty. "Oh, what did I tell you silly fools about blood sacrifices to your so-called god? Well, if it's blood your god wants..."
**I am assuming this was an actual survivor, and not one of the many mentally ill attention-seekers who are drawn to events like this one and claim to have been involved when they were in fact nowhere near the incident.
The narcissistic primarily autobiographical blog of the pseudonymous d.b. echo
I find it amazing how some people find that God is THERE only when a miracle occurs... and then we ask, "Why did you let this happen God", when something horrible transpires.
ReplyDeleteWe'll never understand the way God works. He sees "the big picture", while we only see a small scope of things. If we tried understanding the ways of God--------it's almost the same as fish trying to comprehend algebra.
I think you're right in the sense that we cannot say, "Well, this person died because that person was a sinner." We can't pass judgment and say that the just lived and the unjust died. That's the meaning of the passage. And it was commonly believed -- just look at Job's friends, who insist Job MUST have done something wrong to deserve his fate. But as Jesus said elsewhere, the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.
ReplyDeleteThat said, that doesn't mean there were or were not individual miracles. Perhaps, God, because of His sovereign will, chose to intervene here, or not there. Perhaps God simply let it happen. Only God knows. As a friend of mine once said :), "It's a mystery. We skip over it."
Bill @ BN
I've always thought it was the height of arrogance to assume that God was watching over oneself, or any individual person. Who made me, or you, or that person, so important that God has to quit running the universe for a minute so he can catch our car when the bridge collapses?
ReplyDeletevery well said.
ReplyDelete