By Richard Rohr
Posted in Faith
Surviving with Jesus
Theodicy is a branch of theology that has developed many arguments on how there can be a good God, or a just God in the presence of so much evil in the world—about which ‘God’ appears to do nothing.
The evidence is overwhelming that God fully allows and does not stop genocides, child abuse, brutal wars, unspeakable human and animal suffering, the imprisonment of the innocent, sexual assaults and enslavement, the death of whole species and civilisations, and the tragic lives of addicts and their codependents. Further, God seems to at least ‘allow’ the ‘natural’ disasters of drought, flood, hurricane, tornado, tsunami, plague, famine, and painful diseases of every kind, many of which we call ‘acts of God.’ and all of which have made much of human life ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’ What are we to do with this?
For me, there is a workable and loving way through this. If God is somehow in the suffering, also participating as a suffering object, in full solidarity with the world that God created, then I can make some possible and initial sense of God and this creation. Only if we’re joining God, and God is joining us, in something greater than the sum of all its parts, can we find a way through all of this. Trust in the crucified—and resurrected—Jesus has indeed ‘saved’ many.
Theologians Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan Shaw show how Jesus is a survivor of violent abuse who leads the way for other survivors to find transformation:
For Jesus, the way of God is the way of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the stranger in a ditch, and demanding equity and justice, whether from judges, religious leaders, or politicians. Surviving with Jesus can redirect our anger, our han, our despair. We can learn to accept ourselves, and we can work to create a better world. Things won’t just be hunky-dory. Transformation is a process. The accurate language for faith is not that ‘we are saved’ but that we are ‘being saved.’ Susan once heard poet Maya Angelou tell the story of a young man who asked her if she were ‘saved.’ ‘Are you?’ Angelou responded. ‘Yes,’ and he replied ‘really?’ she countered, ‘Already?’ Transformation is a process—and for survivors, it’s a process with its ups and downs, flashbacks, and panic attacks. But, as the resurrection confirms, it is the better way; it is God’s way.
Surviving with Jesus gives us hope that a different kind of world is possible—a world without sexual abuse, without misogyny and racism, and without violence. That’s a world worth surviving for and working toward with faith that in each of us God truly is making all things new.
Reference
Richard Rohr, Surviving with Jesus — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org).
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Paul tries to create some “audiovisual aids” for this big message, which he calls “churches” (a term Jesus used only twice, found in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17). Paul knows we need living, visible models of this new kind of life to make evident that Christ’s people really follow a way different from mass consciousness.
It is very important, friends, not to think of the soul as dark. We are conditioned to perceive only external light. We forget that there is such a thing as inner light, illuminating our soul.
Paul tries to create some “audiovisual aids” for this big message, which he calls “churches” (a term Jesus used only twice, found in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17). Paul knows we need living, visible models of this new kind of life to make evident that Christ’s people really follow a way different from mass consciousness.
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