A post–Yolanda Christmas

Why do these things happen? It can’t be explained. There are so many things we cannot understand. In these moments of suffering, don’t shy away from asking why?

— Pope Francis to Filipinos

After six million Jews died in an attempted genocide by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, many grappled with the question whether it is still possible to talk of a good God after the Holocaust. More pointedly, it was said that the test of theology’s authenticity is whether it can explain the victimization even of infants in gas chambers.

The unspeakable tragedy experienced by the Jews was human-made. The issue of a loving God and suffering can even be more puzzling in the face of natural disasters. The question was raised when an earthquake hit Lisbon in 1755, killing 50,000 people. More recently, the same problem was posed when an earthquake in the Indian Ocean resulted in a tsunami that killed more than a hundred thousand people in 2004 and when another tsunami hit Japan in 2011. Does God choose which areas disasters can strike? If yes, what is the basis of the choice.

There are those who show much self-righteousness in their certainty that a calamity like Yolanda was brought about by God because of some ungodly laws recently passed. As if they have answers coming straight from heaven, these people believe that God is punishing us for our wrongdoing which they are not a part of. But in the quote above, Pope Francis shows empathy with the victims as he too wrestles with the question of the why’s of Yolanda.

We see the different approaches of the self-righteous and of Pope Francis in the story of Job in the Old Testament. Job was pious and upright. Yet, he experienced enormous misfortunes: He lost his family and his property and he himself was afflicted with a serious physical ailment. The friends of Job told him that despite external appearances, he must have grievously sinned since such tragedies could not have fallen on a righteous man.

Job, on the other hand, raised a question, “Why me?” He believed that if tragedies are punishments from God, his suffering was undeserved.

Unfortunately, God did not give a direct and categorical answer to Job.

Maybe, there is really no intellectually satisfying answer and thus we continue with the struggle with one of the most important questions we ask every time we encounter human suffering: If God is loving and powerful, why is there suffering? Could not a powerful and loving God at least command the waters and the winds to temper their destructive tendencies?

To these questions is added the problem of absurdity and fairness: Why is this poor country that contributes only infinitesimal percentage points to total global warming more prone to what could be its effects?

The usual answer, oftentimes given without much thought, is that although God does not will disasters as such, God allows these to happen for a greater good. But one who lost his family and friends will find his suffering too heavy a price for whatever greater good that can be achieved. If the greater good is to make Filipinos more generous and united, why should the people of Eastern Visayas suffer? Besides, can not the greater good be achieved without much suffering?

An interesting idea is that nature itself has the capacity to make decisions which may contradict the will of God. To illustrate this idea, we point to the sad fact that we humans often go against what we ourselves believe to be God’s will. But cannot nature do the same? Did the raging waters and the all-powerful wind defy God’s will?

We will never have definite answers to these questions. Indeed, some would say that it is idle to speculate on how the mind of God works. Some thinkers have a valid point in asserting that instead of asking why there is suffering and pain, let us focus our energies on fighting against unnecessary suffering.

However, asking the question may be unavoidable for a sincere believer who experiences tragedies. The Pope asks us to keep asking the question why. The question can in fact turn into our own prayer, a heart-to-heart conversation with God.

If the question remains unanswered, still we have the greatest consolation: that God suffers with us. As we celebrate Christmas, let us remind ourselves that it is basically a story of God who assumed our human limitations when he participated in the rough and tumble world of human affairs. That God is one with us may not alleviate physical suffering but may give us assurance that suffering is not the last word.

Yolanda may have sent tens of thousands of people to tents but the infant Jesus also was in a manger, perhaps together with foul-smelling sheep. Yolanda may have forced people to go to other provinces away from nature’s wrath; but Jesus was also forced to go to Egypt away from the intent of Herod to massacre infants. The victims of Yolanda may have felt further victimized by political machinations; Jesus was born in the context of a census whose purpose may have been the systematization of an oppressive tax collection. The victims of Yolanda may have experienced the absence of electricity for weeks but the Israelites then were also hoping for a light in the midst of darkness.

The message of Jesus to the victims can be, “I am a fellow victim. Let us cry together. But together, we hope for a better world.”