PARISH NEWS

We Know the Way

Much of the world ignores God until things go badly and then we hear wonder and despair at human cruelty and the “unfairness” of life in general. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there cancer? Why do God’s children suffer in Ukraine or Myanmar or Sudan? Christians understand that each and every human is uniquely precious to our Creator, so how do horrific things happen?

If indeed we imagine God as a puppeteer, pulling the strings and orchestrating our lives; occasionally throwing in lightning bolts or other random hurdles for us to jump; a God we expect to respond to our (Christian) prayers by giving us exactly what we think we want then we can see the problem. .

But our Creator is not like that! He/she is, indeed, all-powerful, all loving, all wise; giving us stewardship of the natural world in which to co-exist and, crucially, investing us with free will. That is the great adventure of life, working in the world as we find it to make it better!

Without sharing God’s omnipotent knowledge of the world, we do have it in our power to banish warfare, injustice, poverty, inequality and much of the pain of the world; to focus our energies on curing disease and enhancing the well-being of all. Yes, we should be doing better! Hardly seems fair to blame God for our failures!

Christians believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection; his message of infinite love for all. When we let go of worldly plans and expectations and rely entirely on God’s love we realise that, for all our failures, setbacks and inconsistencies, we really do know the way to a full and happy life. John’s gospel this week (Jn 14:1-12) reassures us that following Jesus will bring us to the fullness of life and truth. 

Deacon Mark Kelly