I first heard of the Newtown tragedy at
an airport I was changing planes and I
saw people at the gate gathered around
the TV and and so I went over and and
they said another school shooting I said
oh gosh you mean high school and they
said it was an elementary school which
of course made it you know even more
tragic and took in some of the story
then the next morning I sat down with
the New York Times and read this very
detailed account and I mean to say it
was heartbreaking would be the
understatement of a century but the one
that stays in my mind is the description
of the parents getting news that their
child had died and they said you could
hear the wailing of the parents outside
the building well I read to the point
where I just couldn't read anymore it
was just too overwhelming and here was
part of the problem for me I was reading
this account on what the Catholic Church
calls Gaudete Sunday rejoice Sunday the
third Sunday of Advent all the readings
are about rejoicing in the Lord and I
had a homily prepared around you know
finding joy in the Lord I have to
confess to you I've been Catholic all my
life I've been a priest for 26 years
I've taught the doctrine of God for the
past 20 years the seminary where we look
at the problem of suffering and all of
that you know but I'll confess to you
when I sat down that morning to do my
morning office and I'm reading the
Psalms that we're singing the praises of
God and God's power and God's wisdom and
goodness I'll confess that the words
kind of caught my throat you know and
you think well where was this wise good
and powerful God Friday in in Newtown
Connecticut when six and seven year old
children were being murdered it's the
age-old problem you know this event as
horrific as it was raises again this
this perennial problem of how do you
reconcile the suffering of the world
with the existence of a good and
powerful God the Atheist of course
classical atheists and new atheists are
very ready to pounce on this issue
how could there possibly be a God if
there's so much suffering in the world
in fact the suffering of children
not long before a new town I happened to
come across a YouTube video of Sam
Harris the contemporary atheist and he
was citing statistics if you look around
the world he said something like I think
it was eight or nine thousand children
die and he was it was weekly in tragic
circumstances you know from starvation
or from a political situation or from
violence and he was saying to his
religious interlocutor how do you
possibly find a belief in God given this
terrible fact of children you know on a
daily basis being killed in tragic
circumstances all over the world it's
the age-old problem as I say it was made
more pressing for me as I was reflecting
on all this on Gaudete Sunday rejoice
let me read to a little bit of what the
first reading is for that mass it's from
Paul to the Philippians listen Oh
rejoice in the Lord always I say it
again rejoice the Lord is near have no
anxiety at all well again in light of
Newtown those words kind of catch in the
throat of it don't think is how could
you rejoice always have no anxiety in
your mind okay that's the problem and
we're all familiar with it how do we get
at it well here's here's a first
observation as I hold this this Bible in
my hand in some ways biblical people
should never have been susceptible to
the criticism raised by the classical
atheists and the New Atheists sam harris
because this book this collection of
literature more than really any other
book in the world seems to me is aware
of depravity
of sin of tragedy nowhere in this book
is it implied that to believe in God is
to believe that none of that will exist
that there should be no tragedy there
should be no depravity there should be
no sin in fact on the contrary every
page of this book witnesses
they're coming together of those two of
those two facts you know give me a good
example of this coming together in the
Christmas story itself which is of
course celebrating the closest of God to
us what do you find but you find the
story of the massacre of the innocents I
bet we'll read that story with fresh
eyes this year because if anything that
story is more horrific than Newtown this
is a tyrant a brutal tyrant in a
conscious way a cold-blooded way
ordering the murder of babies of infants
well it's right here in the pages of the
Bible its ingredient in the Christmas
story so how do we make sense of this I
mean how do we how do we make sense of
the coming together of these two things
if I could make another Paul Line
reference it might help in Romans Paul
says this I'm certain that neither
hunger nor nakedness or danger nor the
sword will ever separate us from the
love of God now Paul is not speaking
abstract ly there Paul knew all those
things firsthand hunger nakedness danger
of the sword in fact he died by the
sword of an executioner Paul knew all
about that but listen to the point he's
making I'm certain that none event can
finally separate us from the love of God
he's not naive he's out living in a
fantasy world he acknowledges all the
darkness of the world but he has access
to a level of reality that is deeper and
more biting to believe in God is to have
access to that creative ground of all
existence which is beyond all of the
vagaries of space and time which is
deeper than more abiding than the
comings and goings of the world moreover
to believe in Christ is to believe in a
power of love that is more enduring than
anything that is in the world
all knew one thing Christ and him
crucified in other words he's not hiding
for a second from the brutality of the
cross but yet he can say I'm in touch
with a love with a power that is greater
than and more abiding than all of that
darkness with that in mind go back to
Philippians for a second because again
these are not the words of a naive man
who's living in a in a religiously
induced fantasy land right have no
anxiety at all
did Paul no anxiety of course he did
hunger nakedness danger of the sword all
those things produce anxiety in the
psychological sense so when he says have
no anxiety at all he's appealing to this
level of awareness that is deeper than
the psychological awareness of ordinary
experience it's this deeper perception
of the love of God that's more enduring
then see listen then the peace of God
that surpasses all understanding will
guard your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus it's pretty powerful isn't it our
hearts and minds are always beset by
anxiety they just start we're always
worried about what's coming next what my
next obligation is what's a threat to me
in fact in many ways we've all survived
over the long years revolution because
our ancestors were very alert to dangers
that's why we're always beset with
anxiety Paul wasn't set by anxiety but
he knows a peace of God that's beyond
all understanding and that will guard
our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus in
other words to put a sort of wall around
them to guard our anxious hearts and
minds lest they fall into an utter
despair what guards them is this peace
that surpasses all understanding let me
close by going back to the cross again
again Paul who says I preach one thing
Christ in him crucified
Christians gathered for prayer on the
Sunday after Newtown
and in church after church what was
before their eyes was a cross it's a
Catholic Church it was a crucifix but a
cross and you know prettified in
different ways because they're in a
liturgical setting but the cross is
something awful you know again we might
overlook that because it's become such a
religious symbol but the cross is a man
innocent man more to it the innocent son
of God who is being brutally put to
death in a conscious cold-blooded way
the cross is worse than Newtown the
cross is worse than anything any tragedy
in human history the Son of God being
put to death do we hide it no do we do
we run from it into a fantasy land no we
put it right in front of us why because
we know that through the power of the
Resurrection a love that is greater than
anything that is in the world has been
made manifest there's no power no
tragedy nothing nothing so horrific that
the love of God does not envelop it
conquer it prove greater that's why you
know for Christians this problem has a
particular texture there's problem
suffering because we don't offer an
abstract solution like well here's
here's my philosophical account of how
to reconcile God and evil we don't do
that so much we hold the cross we hold
up evil in all of its intensity and
power but we do so with a peace beyond
all understanding because we know the
love of God is more powerful than
anything that is in the world that's the
Christian response it seems to me to
Newtown and to all the other tragedies
down through human history we're in
touch with the God who doesn't eliminate
evil from the world that will come at
the end of time that will come with the
eschaton and God for God's purposes
allows evil to exist and that's that's a
deep mystery in itself
but the point is we're in touch with a
God who is greater than and more
powerful than anything that's in the
world
you