Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting
Written by Scarlett Rose Ford
Recently, I was asked the age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? This is a rather common follow-up question after I say that I study theology, and for a good reason. All of us have asked this at some point, but it seems that no one is able to answer this in a concise way. There’s no way to say “bad things happen because ___,” but today’s readings paint a pretty clear solution to the theodicy dilemma.
The first reading is from Job, specifically God’s response to Job when he asks God why so many bad things are happening to him. For the 37 chapters leading up to this, Job loses everything he owns—his possessions, his family, his health—and everyone in his life questions how he could still trust in the Lord who seems to have turned against him. Yet Job holds fast to the truth that God loves him, even when he cannot see it.
Job asks God for some explanation, some way to explain to others how He can still be good in spite of all the bad happening in his life. In the midst of a storm, God responds to Job, “Where were you when I founded the earth?” (Job 38:4). God goes on to explain that He is in control (and has always been) as He calms the storm, as He also does in today’s psalm and Gospel.
Amid a storm, it’s hard to see the rainbow ahead. It’s difficult to identify that something is in God’s plan, especially in the moment of suffering. Yet God is so good that there is always a plan — there has to be. He is a good Father; He would never leave us alone. His love is everlasting, even when we can’t feel it.
As the Angelic Doctor of the Church St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, love is to will the good of the other. It is not a feeling but a choice. God has chosen to will our good, and His plan for our good is so much better than what we could plan for ourselves. His plan is not one of instant gratification where we are perpetually in a state of earthly bliss, but one that leads us to a greater state of heavenly bliss, which often includes suffering along the way.
In these moments of suffering, it’s urgent to not despair but to give thanks to God for the rainbow that is to come. From the time of Noah, this has been His covenant with us. He is always with us in our distress, just as He was in the boat with the disciples in the Gospel. He never leaves our side. In these moments, He asks us to trust Him, as Jesus asks in the Gospel today, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
Scarlett Rose Ford is a current Master of Theological Studies degree candidate at Harvard University. She is a news correspondent for Harvard Divinity School, a journalism intern for Catholic Worker, and a contributing writer for several other Catholic publications. Scarlett is reachable via Instagram and Linkedin.
Pray with today’s psalm.