I was disturbed watching a news channel, wherewith two anchormen, who I felt were Catholics, were interviewing a US politician, who was evidently a non-catholic, about the recent tragedies in New Orleans, Guatemala, and South Asia. The Catholics got the Catholic doctrine all wrong while the non-Catholic politician got the Catholic doctrine right.
There were, evidently, many sufferings: elderly, the adults and the young including the babies…. the Catholics, the Protestants, and other religions. And we try to understand what is going on. In the Catholic religion, we should always know what is going on. God had acted like this before and we know the reasons. It is, most probably, for the same reason that He had acted today.
We must never think that our affairs are not governed by providence. We must perceive His providence in things incomprehensible and yield to the unsearchableness of His wisdom. For if it is not possible for one not conversant with art to understand man’s art, much rather is it impossible for the human understanding to comprehend the infinity of the providence of God.
Let us briefly describe the movement of beings. There are sentient beings that can move by themselves, like man and animals. And there are non-sentient beings that can also move but not by themselves; like the blooming of a flower, the rushing of a stream, the rolling down of lava or mud, the blowing of the wind, the turning of a tornado and the movements of the stars. If they are not sentient who moves them? We say the angels, under God’s command, make them move. So the breaking of the levy, the rushing in of water, the storm at Guatemala and earthquake and tsunamis in Asia were angel borne. Now why would God give such a command? Scriptures has all the answer.
1. God punishes or chastises sinners here on earth. But more often He does not immediately punish or chastise sinners (those who disobey His commands). He keeps quiet until He has had it.
When God punishes a sinner, it is to remind him that he is doing wrong; a warning that if he died he would go to hell. The chastisement is to prevent him from sinning further; and if the sinner dies, it is God’s way of reducing his punishment in purgatory or hell. “So sin no more.” Stop! Less something worst happen to you – is the message of a chastisement.
A serious illness or calamity puts the sinful way of life into a dead stop. The person is incapacitated, everything could be lost, or many could be dead to reduce evil in the world.
A chastisement is a reminder, a warning, a preventive medicine (to restrain men from doing evil), or a reduction procedure (i.e. reducing one’s punishment in purgatory or hell). The evil is cut off by the punishment so the future punishment and the chastening become lighter in the next life because they have suffered here beforehand.
2. There are those who sin but God does not chastise or punish them. This is God’s way of inviting them to repentance (to sin no more)…and for others to rejoice that God does not always chastise or punish the sinner but often time relent. This is an encouragement for us to examine our consciences, look at our life, go over the sins which we have committed and see how better it is for God to relent to give us occasion to repent before God does something we don’t like.
When God chastises or punishes us, it is penalty for our sins; when God relents and postpones His chastisement or punishment, His patience invites us to repentance.
But beware. When God relents and we suffer no terrible affliction for our sins, it does not mean that He will postpone his chastisement indefinitely.
When God chastises others but not us, it does not mean that the others are more sinful then we are. As above, it could mean that we are even worst sinners but God, for reasons known to Him alone, had relented in our case.
Some wicked are chastened and some are not chasten; while some good He honors and some He does not honor. He does not chasten all in order that He may persuade them, that there is a Resurrection where a final judgment will be made, where sinners who were not chastened will now suffer eternal fire; while the good that had not been honored will now be honored for all eternity.
He chastens some so that on-lookers, who are careless, through fear of being punished, may become more earnest.
He honors and blesses the good in order that the good may lead on others by this honor to imitate his God-given virtues.
If we receive everything here, both chastisement and reward we might disbelieve the Resurrection (there will be no need of a further final judgment.)
If no one receives his chastisement or honor here the majority would become careless.
The tower fell: they were chastened. You not. You are also a sinner, yet you are not chastened. Why? To make the sinner grateful for being spared and to make the righteous better by the sight of the punishment of others.
Can’t both the sinner and righteous become better without the chastisement? If they could, God would not have chastised them.
Can sinners who are not chastened complain that God is not helping them learn through chastisements? Those not chastened are not unjustly treated, for it was possible for them, had they wished, to have used the patience of God, to accomplish a most excellent change, to have become ashamed at his exceeding forbearance, and one day to have gone over to virtue and gained their own salvation by watching the punishments of others.
3. Why are righteous man chastened, like JOB. For if any one be righteous, he will not be more righteous than Job, nor within a small distance of approaching him. And if he suffers countless ills, he has not yet suffered so much, as that man Job.
There are two kinds of good men; one is honored, the other is chastised (those who are patient, self-restraint, upright with good qualities but still chastened). It is not by way of deserting him that God let such a person suffer ill, but through desire to crown him and make him more distinguish.
We receive the occasion of crowning if, when we live in rectitude, and yet suffer ill. He does not honor all because there is another day for recompense in the life after.
4. If all evil are chastened and all good are honored a day of judgment is superfluous.
If he chastens no wicked man AND does not honor any of the good men then the wicked will become more wicked.
5. When certain evil men are chastened and certain good men are chastened, does this show no providence?
Remember the paralytic who passed thirty eight years on his bed. For that man was delivered over to that disease through sin. Hear Christ saying the condition for the removal of the chastisement. “Behold thou art made whole: sin no more lest a worse thing happen to thee.” St. Paul though holy was chastened with a sting in the flesh.
There are two kinds of evil men: one is chastened, while the other gets off. The paralytic is the first. Pontius Pilate got off for a while.
6. When God does NOT chasten God bears with sinners to give them an opportunity of coming out of their own senselessness, to become better from witnessing the punishment of others for the benefit of their own repentance.
If God chastens all sins, our race would have disappeared from the face of the earth. If God punished immediately those who call their brothers “Fool” hardly anybody would be left. Those who lust with the eyes, though a serious sin, God does not chastise right away.
When you see one rapacious, covetous and not chastened, unfold your own conscience, look at your own life, go over your sins, and learn from your own case that God does not chastened each for his sins but invites him to repentance. Look at yourself before you look at others; do not leave your faults to examine that of others.
7. And why do children die. Because God had seen their hearts and know there is goodness in them. He, also, through foreknowledge know that if they grow up they could lose their souls, so He gets them while they are young. The pain they undergo, being chastised, is a little purgatory or purification. And what happens to those children He saw have evil in their hearts? He makes them grow up in the hope they would repent.
CONCLUSION. We give thanks to Him for all that happens. For those who do not believe in God let us not answer the questions of madmen.
For if a small ship would be difficult to guide safely for one mile without the hand of a pilot how much more, such a world as ours, having so many persons in it, composed of complex elements, would not have continued so long a time, were there not a certain Divine Providence presiding over it. And if there is a God, it follows that he is just, for if He is not just neither is He God, and if He is just He rewards the good and punishes the bad according to their desert. But we do not see all the bad punished nor all the good rewarded here. Therefore it is necessary to hope for some other requital awaiting us, in order that by each one receiving according to his desert, the justice of God may be made manifest. This consideration does not only contribute to our wisdom about providence alone, but about the Resurrection. (Painting above is “Job in the Dunghill” by Jean Fouquet, 1450.)