What Jesus reveals when bad things happen to us

 Is God a reason for bad things happening to us today? I just saw a video saying that bad things happening today show that God sends us a message so we will repent. Let us be good, let us prepare for the coming of Christ. Repent, God is making us return to him through these bad things happening to us. It is a sad picture about God. It makes God look bloodthirsty.

This idea that God is source of bad things happening is found already in the New Testament. Remember the story of the blind man in the 4th Gospel? We read that the disciples of Jesus ask about the reason why the man is blind: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” [Jn 9/2]. God sends something bad against the man because the man, or his parents, has been bad. 

We read something similar in the Luke account. There we read about the issue of the massacre of Galileans done by Pilate, "Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices" [Lk 13/1]. The massacre is thus a kind of atonement, like the sacrificing of animals on the altar, to satisfy God who wants repentance from people.

Jesus replies. He does not say that God causes bad things to happen. When bad things happen they simply signal the need to be more vigilant. God is not the source and cause of the catastrophes happening around us--certainly not this covid pandemic. Yet God is not nothing and is not nobody in these situations. God is here somewhere and the Revelation of the Son is a clear example.

Let us think of the many bad things happening. The deaths of vulnerable people due to the covid virus. The rape of a woman in the street. The killing of innocent by a militia. The cheating done against workers in their workplaces, including their salaries. The loss of jobs. The breakdown of an educational system. Then there is the horrible climate change and the destructions occuring.  Etc. 

Here we find bad things happening; we find the destruction of lives, the negation of dignity, the defacement of hope. 

During the time of Jesus there was the Roman Empire dominating over the social lives of the people of Palestine. We know the role of crucifixions. They were done to show everyone else who's is charge, who's the boss around here. 

We know the story. The Jews were so frustrated, and among them were disciples of Jesus. They were all longing for liberation from the yoke of the Romans and the local political/religious authorities. They were longing for a Messiah who will liberate them. 

Jesus did not show himself as a political leader; Jesus did not take up arms, as opposed to zealots, for example. The disciples, during the pre-Easter time, were disappointed when they did not find in him the answer to their hopes for political liberation. 

What was the response of Jesus to the bad things happening? The response he gave was so unique, so unexpected.  In and through the bad things happening what did Jesus show? We can consider some points.

Fist is the "solidarity" of Jesus with all of humanity through the Incarnation. We see the solidarity of Jesus in culture. Jesus participated in a world where bad things happen and he himself experienced bad things happening to him.

Second is his trust and confidence in the Father. He knew that no matter how bad things got he had a Father who will stay by his side and will not abandon his very own Son. Then Jesus said that we too are children of the same Father. Jesus had full confidence in the Father that even in the midst of bad things happening to him he abandoned himself in the hands of his Father. On the third day the Father rose him from death. 

In the Catholic tradition there is no rejection of our being Image and Children of the Father. Never does the Father want bad things happening to us. Never does the Father shower us with bad thinbgs to make us turn to Him. Never. If today we feel we must "repent"and "turn back"to the Father, it is not because the Father will continue sending us bad things. It is rather because we realize the Love of God and we want to continue to hold on to that Love, recognize it as basic to our human reality. In the midst of this pandemic--and all the other bad things happening and will happen--we can be like Jesus maintaining full confidence in the Father who loves us and grieves when bad things happen to us. 

I remember, by memory, a prayer of St Therese of Lisieux: 

"You must navigate the tempestous sea of the world with the love and utter trustfulness of a child who knows that the Father loves him too much to forsake him at the hour of peril". 

 Then there is the prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld: 

Father, 

I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures -I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul: I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.

We can think of people who love us--family members, friends--who make the effort to accompany us in our own grieving and enter into solidarity with us in their own limited ways. They too, like Jesus, come to us, stay with us, walk with us in our darkness.

The Road to Emmaus: Scriptures and the Eucharist

 When we read the story of the road to Emmaus we may take note of two important elements: the work of "cathecism" and the breaking of the Bread. We read that the Resurrected Lord gives something like a rapid teaching of the disciples on what was written. But then that was not enough.  The disciples were still at a loss. Later, after that walk Jesus broke bread at table with the disciples. The minds, the eyes of the disciples were opened.

We know the story. The two disciples are walking to Emmaus away from Jerusalem, talking about the event of Jesus crucified. Then Jesus comes along and gives his "lecture" series. The disciples do not recognize him.  Nearing Emmaus the disciples ask Jesus to stay over with them. They beg him to hang around still as Jesus pretends to be on his way. 

Now at the table Jesus breaks the bread and gives his blessing, his benediction. The eyes of the disciples open, they recognize Jesus. Jesus disappears and the disciples admit how their hearts were ALREADY BURNING during the catechesis. Immediately the disciples return to Jerusalem to break the news to the other disciples. "Jesus is truly risen". They talk about the walk with Jesus to Emmaus and the breaking of the bread. 

That walk to Emmaus was a kind of catechism on the faith. The faith of the disciples somehow started to clarify--their hearts were burning, they were more and more interested, enlivened. Although they were disciples of Jesus they did not yet know what was underneath all that Jesus said and did. In theology school this is termed as the "before-Easter" understanding abiut Jesus. Jesus had to give a lecture, a rapid "semestral" course on Scriptures. [No, it was not "on line"]. Jesus showed the plan of salvation as depicted in the Scriptures.

But what really opened up the minds and eyes and hearts of the disciples? It was the breaking of the bread. That gesture, we know, is the "memorial" of the sacrifice of Jesus. It summarizes and gives summit to what the catechism was presenting earlier. So two elements supplemented each other: 

1. the encounter with the RIsen Lord with and through the Scriptures and 

2. the breaking of the bread. 

The story tells us that the faith is now guided, it knows where to lead itself which is the realization of a new life, a new world. 

In our own daily lives we see the same route to Emmaus, and beyond. We know of very painful experiences and we have them in our stories to tell. Like the disciples we can live this "walk" with Christ presenting, discretely, both his Person and his teaching, his "catechesis". He accompanies us in our walk of hope. Are our hearts burning? 

The route to Emmaus was not done in haste. Perhaps there were moments of pause, questions and answers, moments of reflection and even prayer. We need that too in our walk. We need quality time for prayer, meditation. We need quality time to catch breath and re-breathe in our faith. Like the disciples, even if, perhaps we do not recognize the presence of Jesus, our hearts are already burning. Jesus is really with us,

We also need to eat the broken bread. We need that intimacy with the living bread. We need to share the meal with each other. The Eucharistic celebration is that pause, that long pause, that allows us to openly confirm our faith in Christ. 

Charles de Foucauld saw, in his own ministry among the Arabs and Touaregs the place both of Scriptures and the Eucharist. Although he did emphasize the role of "insertion" among the inhabitants, he knew that his Scriptural and Eucharistic practices were equally "effective" in his ministry of living with the people around him.