God weeps with us in the suffering wrought by the Asian tsunami
January 20, 2005 Edition 1
There are no glib answers to questions of divine and human responsibility in the face of suffering. But two millennia of Christian tradition, grounded in scripture, both reassure and challenge us.
The Christian response centres on belief in a God who weeps with us.
Our God is not an absent deity, cold-hearted and distant from our distress. Rather, in Jesus Christ - fully God and fully human - he shares all life's joys and sorrows, and, on the cross, even mortality and death. His resurrection demonstrates he has conquered death, no longer the ultimate enemy that overcomes us all.
The tsunami does not change these truths - instead, it highlights how deeply we need God's love in life, and God's saving reassurance in death.
There are good reasons why a philosophical approach does not deliver fully satisfactory answers to questions like: "How can an all-loving, all-powerful God allow tragedy?"
Faith is not an intellectual exercise - reducing God to something our finite minds can grasp. God is too big. Faith entails a living relationship with the loving God who promises to be with us in all circumstances - provided we will accept him.
This is why Christianity has withstood the test of time.
Repeatedly, those who face tragedy tell how they were sustained by God's presence, comfort, strength and his encouragement to pick up the pieces and go forward.
Many of us know this personally - as I did both on Robben Island, and later when my first wife died suddenly. When you have experienced him like this you cannot doubt his love or his power to transform lives.
God's power is also evident in the creation of an awe-inspiring universe, in which our tiny planet, through processes like this earthquake, has produced conditions which sustain life. Earthquakes, the awesome power of Victoria Falls, a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, a baby's first smile - all are acts of God.
Yet there is a human dimension too. Though the earthquake was beyond human control, the tsunami's effects were often made worse by our destruction of mangroves and unsuitable building developments.
The Bible tells us to be responsible stewards of God's creation. Reconstruc-tion must be ecologically appropriate and sustainable. Each of us must accept that we contribute to global warming, bringing rising sea levels, and must act accordingly.
We should not think God allowed the earthquake to punish humanity in a simple and vindictive way - sweeping good and bad together into the sea. But neither must we forget that we are each accountable to him for our actions. We are not puppets - God gives us choice, in our faith and in how we live.
We should see this as a wake-up callâ to use our choices wisely - especially in how we share the world's resources.
Richer countries have early warning systems; Japan and San Francisco can afford buildings that withstand earthquakes. Poverty, rooted in unjust economic systems, means natural disasters always seem to hit the poorest hardest.
It is also a wake-up call to acknowledge the ultimate realities of life - we cannot understand and control everything and must depend on God to direct us and to forgive us when we fail to be the people we ought.
The God who shares our tears also shows his love in inspiring countless loving human actions. There have been numerous stories of people risking, even forfeiting, their lives to save others; local people, devastated by their own losses, opening their homes to foreigners; and the outpouring of aid.
Love your neighbour as yourselfâ taught Jesus. This tragedy demonstrates how the whole human family are our neighbours. We must all give generously towards those in need, also remembering those like the more than 40 million people who live with HIV/Aids, of whom three million will die this year. So will another three million from TB and malaria - both easily and cheaply curable, if we have the will-power.
Where is God in suffering?
One answer lies in the responses each one of us chooses, or chooses not, to make.
In all things God works for goodâ says a famous Bible verse.
So take heart, because the God who overcame death on the cross brings hope and new beginnings even in the darkest tragedy - it is up to us to let him touch us.
Njongonkulu Ndungane
Archbishop of Cape Town
