Why is it that a medical transport helicopter carrying a newborn and two nurses enroute to Philadelphia Children’s Hospital crashed “safely” in Drexel Hill, Pa., in January with the pilot and passengers exiting the wreckage with non-life-threatening injuries; yet a fire in the Bronx, N.Y., started by a faulty space heater left 17 people dead, including eight children?
To wonder why God saved those in the helicopter crash but not those in the Bronx raises the problem known in theological circles as “theodicy,” that is, the question of God’s justice vis-à-vis human suffering and death.
Since the beginning of time, people have been asking about this complex issue. The answer lies in how we envision God. Do we understand God as do the Deists, a Creator who stays on the sidelines and watches his creatures fend for themselves? In this scenario, God applauded when the captain maneuvered the helicopter to the ground without the loss of life, damage to property, bystanders or vehicles, and God cried when the Gambian and Dominican inhabitants of the 19-story apartment building died of smoke inhalation.
On the other hand, maybe we perceive God as did some of the French authors of the 17th century, who often resolved a seemingly tragic ending by inserting a literary technique known as Deus ex machina, in other words, it’s tantamount to the Deuteronomic theory of retribution, which holds that God rewards the good, in this life, and punishes the wicked, in this life. So, in 17th century French plays by Corneille, Racine and Moliere, God swoops onto the scene and saves the day. This then permits the good, who suffer injustice, to be rewarded in the end.
I would say that most of us, Catholics, fall somewhere in the middle between these two extremes. We’d like to believe that God rewards the just and punishes the wicked. We want to hold for free will. So, we don’t envision God meddling too often in our lives. Yet, we want to believe in miracles because this fuels hope.
“How, then, do we interpret the two January events — one in Drexel Hill which was, in the opinion of many, nothing short of miraculous — and the other which was a nightmare, a backdraft the smoke of which claimed anyone in its path, in the halls, in their apartments in the stairwells?” The truth is, there is no one answer to this question of theodicy. We do not know why God chooses not to intervene when he foresees something tragic in the future, but there is one thing that we do know: God is with us in our suffering, just as he was with Jesus as our Lord hung upon the Cross.
Maybe the captain and passengers on board the helicopter were lucky! Or, what if we take the stance that we live in a world where freak phenomena occur, some of which, we just cannot explain? Now, that makes sense to me. Why one group survived virtually unscathed while the other choked on smoke until death has nothing to do with God’s love for or disdain of any particular person.
God loves all people, without reservation, without exception. All we can do in the face of tragedy is trust that God was with those souls in their final moments on earth, and that their agony was cut short by His merciful love — and that they are now in the place where there are no freak phenomena, where there is no sorrow, no separations, no disease, no war, no accidents, no more suffering, tears or mortality.
That my friends is where hope kicks in! And what is hope? In the words of Jacques Ellul, a 20th century French theologian: “Hope is our response to God’s silence.” It is our stance when God does not account for some tragic flaw in this world. But it is also our conviction that in the end, God will have the last word, as he did when the Father raised his only Son to new life in the Resurrection. It is trusting that God will bring good out of this evil; that he will vindicate those who suffered injustice and that the consummation of God’s saving plan marked by Jesus’ Second Coming, will transform this “vale of tears” into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Until then, we pray: “Come, Lord Jesus.”
Father Comandini is managing editor of The Catholic Spirit