(upbeat music)
LIBBY: I'm Libby.
KAI: And I'm Kai. This is Catholic Central.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
It's one of the most difficult questions we all face.
LIBBY: Catholics have been wrestling with it
for literally thousands of years.
KAI: Right. There's God and then there's --
(anvil crashes)
LIBBY: Bad things.
KAI: Yeah.
Today, we'll take a look at how Navy Seals
and horror movies help us
to understand why bad things happen.
LIBBY: Can cat videos do that?
(upbeat music)
KAI: Suffering.
Who needs it?
It's a huge question.
LIBBY: And we can't solve it in the next 10 minutes.
KAI: That's disappointing.
LIBBY: But no matter who you are,
bad things do happen in your life
and in the lives of the people you love most.
KAI: Right, so thinking about this
will help you be there
for those you care about.
LIBBY: And help you see the things that happen in your life
in a more meaningful context.
KAI: God allowing bad things to happen to good people
is one of the biggest reasons why some people believe
God either doesn't care,
or isn't there at all.
LIBBY: Even for people who do believe in God,
it's one of the hardest things to figure out.
KAI: Think of it like this.
Ask random people to define God.
Even people who disagree on some things,
or those who don't even believe in God
will tell you a few major attributes
that God has or should have.
One, God is all-powerful.
Two, God is all-knowing.
Three, God is all-loving.
Four, God is all-bearded.
(buzzer)
LIBBY: If I loved Kai,
with every fiber of my being,
and knew all of his problems
and could do anything in the world to fix them,
I'd definitely do it.
KAI: Wow, thanks.
LIBBY: I wouldn't let anything go wrong for Kai, ever.
I'd make sure he never got sick,
everyone would like him,
and he'd win the lottery every week.
(bell ringing)
KAI: That sounds awesome.
Wait a minute, that's not how my life is at all.
LIBBY: So if God is all-powerful,
all-knowing, all-loving,
why doesn't He fix all of your problems
or all the problems in the whole world?
KAI: Turn on any news or hop on the old internet
and you'll see war and terrorism.
Horrible stuff.
LIBBY: I mean, the things that happen in our own lives
usually aren't as dramatic.
But it's still a struggle to deal with mistreatment
or someone hurting a loved one.
KAI: You know what?
This is just uh, getting really,
really heavy right now.
Let's cut it.
Can we just cue the cat video, please?
(happy music)
LIBBY: You did it, Kai.
KAI: Wait, what'd I do?
LIBBY: You made the call to watch a cat video.
You just exercised free will.
Free will to be able to choose one thing or another.
One of the major reasons why bad things happen
and people suffer
is that we human beings have free will.
KAI: We can choose to be nice to each other, or
basically just be jerks.
LIBBY: And that's true from the level of like,
cutting in line at Starbucks
and all the way up to the Holocaust
and the major crimes of history.
KAI: So if God prevented people from doing bad things,
or choosing to do bad things,
then we wouldn't have free will.
KAI: And free will is one of the things we value most
as human beings.
LIBBY: In fact some people,
like one of my favorite Catholic thinkers,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
say that free will is so fundamentally
part of being a human that we literally couldn't
exist as humans without it.
LIBBY: So it makes sense that an all-powerful,
all-knowing,
all-loving God,
allows us free will.
Because it's necessary to be fully human.
KAI: Wait, why is that?
LIBBY: Well, love.
Catholics believe that humans are made to love.
And true love is a free choice
for the good of another.
This allows us to reflect the image
of an all-loving God.
A God who freely chooses to love us.
A God who wants our love, too,
but not forced or compelled.
KAI: So we're done.
Thanks for watching folks, we'll be back next week.
LIBBY: Hold on, Kai! Hold.
KAI: Well, what?
LIBBY: Well, OK, sure,
free will can explain why God lets people
do bad things to other people.
KAI: Ouch, Libby!
LIBBY: But it doesn't explain why God doesn't just totally
stop bad things from happening.
(anvil crashes)
A lot of people say, well free will is great.
But how does that explain cancer droughts,
and other bad things?"
KAI: Like random objects falling on you.
LIBBY: Bad things that have nothing to do with people
choosing them or causing them.
KAI: Some Catholic thinkers say this:
suffering is one of the ways
that God brings us closer to Himself.
LIBBY: Closer to Go-- but wait.
If someone's making me suffer,
I don't normally feel closer to them.
KAI: OK, yeah.
But when about when you suffer with someone?
LIBBY: Oh, so like, a really tough camping trip?
KAI: Sore feet, cold weather, lost in the woods.
LIBBY: But you've bonded with the people
you're camping with, right?
KAI: Definitely.
LIBBY: That's why training to become Navy Seals
and other really demanding jobs is so intense.
KAI: During Seal training,
instructors push candidates
way past their physical and mental limits.
At the end, the Seals who shared all of that misery
will literally die for each other.
LIBBY: We are naturally wired
so that suffering brings us closer
to the ones that really love us
and who we can really trust.
And we learn how to empathize
with others who are suffering.
KAI: Oh, wait a minute Libby,
this might have been a bad example.
Does that make God a drill instructor?
Who's pushing us through suffering
just so that we'll suffer and come closer together?
LIBBY: Oh, no, no.
Catholics believe God is right down there
in the surf suffering next to us,
which is a core truth of Christianity.
KAI: Right.
That God came to Earth as a human being
in the person of Jesus,
to suffer all the same things we do.
He was poor.
LIBBY: He was disrespected.
KAI: He endured the death of his foster father, Joseph.
LIBBY: He was spat on and cursed.
KAI: Thrown out of a ton of places
and rejected by a lot of people.
LIBBY: And then ultimately,
He was betrayed, tortured,
and executed for a crime He didn't commit.
KAI: So when we feel pain,
Catholics understand that we're feeling pain
that God felt as a human being.
That's why the cross
is such a powerful symbol for Christians.
It visibly reminds them that God is with us.
LIBBY: And of how much God loves us.
That He will make our suffering His own
and suffer anything to set us free.
Catholics aren't saying that suffering isn't real,
or that suffering doesn't really hurt.
KAI: Right.
But they do believe that there's meaning to it.
LIBBY: And that God is with us every step of the way.
KAI: OK.
So that helps.
But, aren't we still missing something?
I mean, it's nice to know
that God is with me when I break my leg.
But what about the girl who dies of malaria
in a slum somewhere?
Her story's over.
LIBBY: That's what people thought about Jesus.
After He was crucified by the Romans,
His followers thought that was the end for Him.
That His suffering had been for nothing.
But when they saw Him risen from the dead three days later,
He showed them there's an eternal life
that's much bigger than what we have on Earth.
KAI: The Catholic world view.
It puts life on Earth in a larger context.
It says we have souls.
It says that our suffering
is something we pass through
to be fully reunited with God in Heaven.
LIBBY: Hey, Kai, I think now is the perfect time
for our example of how the larger context works.
KAI: Right you are, Libby.
(knocking)
KAI: Did you hear that?
LIBBY: Don't open the door.
(screams)
KAI: Nothing's better than a good horror movie scare.
LIBBY: The movie's only scary
because you forget you're not really in danger.
You fear is definitely real,
it scares your socks off.
But, once the movie's over
and we go back outside,
we remember that we're okay.
Those feelings we had during the movie
are much smaller than the greater reality of our lives.
KAI: In the Catholic context,
this is a lot like the pain we experience during our lives.
There's the pain, yes.
And, of course we're focused on it in the moment.
But it passes.
And then comes the greater reality of God and eternity.
LIBBY: So, those are three Catholic answers
to why bad things happen to good people.
And it's a good idea to think about these things
before they happen to you.
KAI: One, that God gives people free will,
because that's what allows them to love.
But sometimes they abuse that free will and fail to love,
which causes suffering.
LIBBY: And two, God suffers with us.
Suffering has meaning that strengthens us
and brings us closer to God and each other.
KAI: And three, that while suffering may seem overwhelming,
it diminishes when we remember the eternal life
that we're created for.
Having this perspective doesn't take away suffering,
but it does help us to endure it.
LIBBY: The hardest time to believe in the Resurrection
is when you're hanging on the cross.
KAI: When we suffer, the greatest challenge
is to find the meaning and hope.
LIBBY: And the Church gives us a place
to do all of that, together.
KAI: Remember, if a friend or a loved one is suffering...
LIBBY: Be with them in compassion to help them through.
(anvil crashes)
KAI: So, that's it for today.
This is Catholic Central.
Thanks for watching.
I'm Kai.
LIBBY: And I'm Libby.
And we'll see you next time.
KAI: You gotta get some, an ice pack or something.
LIBBY: Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark.
(upbeat music)