Faith, the Cross and calamities

I refer to Guillaumier’s letter entitled “The futility of faith”, which identical to the letter that appeared in MaltaToday on 17 September but with a different heading “Church disasters”. My claim in reply to his theory is that, as surely as night follows day, his letters inevitably crop up periodically in all English language newspaper, is vindicated.

Everyone knows that along with heresies, we can expect calamities any moment. However, Jesus’ words resonate throughout the whole Bible: “See to it that you are not alarmed.” With such spiritual bailouts, it is clear and unequivocal that when there is worldwide persecution and ecological turmoil, bravery and faith are indispensable.

It was the death of God himself on the cross. He laid aside his immunity to pain, experienced our world of flesh and blood, tears and death and suffered for us. Thus, our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His.

But who can understand God’s proselytization? Humanly speaking these catastrophic disasters leave us in horrified incomprehension but this is when the Cross eclipses everything in default reaction to threats, doubts and calamities.

I came across the following poetic spirituality – rolled together into a ball, eaten by God, digested, fully tasted eternally. In the act of creation, God not only said let there be little chickens, pretty flowers and beautiful dawns but also let there be blood and guts and the buzzing flies around the cross. God seems to be intimately involved in the act of creating a world of suffering. He didn’t do it – we did ref. Revelation, the fall of man and it consequences – yet he did say “Let the world be”.

And if He did that and then just sat back and said “Well, it’s your fault after all” – although he would be perfectly justified in doing that – I don’t see how we could love him. The fact that he went beyond justice and quite incredibly took all the suffering upon himself, makes him so endearing that the answer to suffering is… How could you not love this being who went the extra mile, who practised more than he preached, who enters our world, who suffers our pains, who offers himself to us in the midst of our sorrows! What more could he do?

On one side of the scale, this torture or all the tortures of the world; on the other side of the scale, the face of God – the God available to all who seek Him in the midst of their pain. The good of God, the joy of God is going to infinity, outweighing all the sufferings and even the woes of this world.

“In silence and in hope (Faith) shall your strength be” (Isaiah 30:15).” Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev 2:10) – that is God’s promise. John Azzopardi Zabbar