Suffering and Evil: A Matter of Trust and Mystery

by Philip Sudworth.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, Billy Graham took a very different approach from those television evangelists who declaimed that God was punishing the country. In a sermon delivered at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. he said: “I have been asked hundreds of times why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I do not know the answer. I have to accept, by faith, that God is sovereign, and that He is a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering.”  He added, “We’ve seen so much that brings tears to our eyes and makes us all feel a sense of anger. But God can be trusted, even when life seems at its darkest.”[1]

The main comfort for many Christians is that Jesus is alongside them in their suffering.  As Pope John Paul II put it: “The crucified Christ is proof of God’s solidarity with man in his suffering.”[2]   This message of consolation, solace and re-assurance is found in the Hebrew scriptures. When the Israelites were feeling desolate and abandoned in slavery and exile in Babylon, Isaiah brought them a message from God: “You are precious to Me. You are honoured, and I love you. Do not be afraid, for I am with you” (Isaiah 43:4-5).

Amidst the persecution of the early Christians, Paul could write “For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths – nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

The trusting acceptance of what happens to us as ‘God’s will’ may apply when we are the ones suffering, but is this acquiescence equally valid when suffering is being endured by others or when we see the evil in the world?  Should we not rage against it and take what action we can?  Perhaps we should stop blaming (or excusing) God for injustice and suffering in the world and look for the love in it which will enable us to do something about creating more fairness and removing some causes of suffering. 

A long-standing tradition in Christian philosophy is the unknowability of God.  As St Augustine of Hippo put it, “If you understood, it would not be God.”  You don’t talk to a four-year-old about nuclear physics and quantum uncertainty, and you don’t talk to people who think the earth is flat and at the centre of a 3-tier cosmos about a universe that’s 43 million light years across with 200 billion galaxies and still expanding.  So, you would expect God to reveal himself to us, and to other people, at different times and in different places, in terms and at a level that we can understand. As our knowledge, both individual and societal, develops, God’s self-revelation becomes an on-going process. Much remains, however, a mystery beyond our understanding, including the problem of suffering.

The 14^th century author of The Cloud of Unknowing wrote, “God can be loved but he cannot be thought. He can be grasped by love but never by concepts. So less thinking and more loving.”  This should be reflected in the way we talk to people about faith, and about evil and suffering.  We have to give people food for the soul, not just food for the mind. When the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer and Roman Catholic theologian Blaise Pascal died, they found on a piece of paper sewn into the lining of his coat a message that he’d carried next to his heart: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars. Certainty, certainty, heartfelt joy, peace.”

We are called to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds. We do need to use our God-given intelligence and to have our own rationale of faith, including how we respond to the problem of suffering. That has to be seen, however, within the context of the limits of human understanding. If we think we have all the answers, we have not yet found half the questions, and we are not showing enough awareness of the mystery of faith. 

This final article of a series on suffering – see also:

Suffering and Evil – Our Fault?

Suffering and Evil – For our benefit?

Suffering and Evil – A Different View of God?

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[1] Billy Graham (2001) – Sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C  – September 14^th, 2001

[2] John Paul II (1994) – Crossing the Threshold of Hope. (Jonathan Cape.)