God and the Mystery of Human Suffering— unless otherwise noted, notes are from the book God and the Mystery of Human Suffering, by Robert Ryan, CP
Session I
I. Opening prayer (from the Book of Common Prayer)
Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (Morning Prayer, Rite II, pg 100)
II. Why do people suffer? Why is suffering a part of God’s good creation?
Each one of us thinks about God’s relation to human suffering in various times during our lives, when we ourselves suffer, when we see others suffering, when we wonder why an innocent person suffers so greatly, why whole groups of people suffer. Our particular beliefs about God and suffering lead to our own theologies regarding suffering. Our theologies can point people toward God, and they can also drive people away from God.
Because our theologies are always in conversation with other people in positive and in negative ways, our goal is that in our time together, we will be able to reflect on our own theologies of suffering, and let our understandings of how God enters into human suffering come into conversation with our tradition, especially our scripture, and if we have time, by entering into conversation with what other theologians have written about God in relation to suffering.
Today we are going to look at the Hebrew Scriptures, writing that stretches over a period of about 1000 years—and that describe the experiences of Israel through history.
Israel interpreted its entire life in light of its covenant with God who had liberated a people from slavery and formed them into a nation. (Exodus 19:4-6a)
Covenant—See covenant hand-out
The Pentateuch—describes the covenantal relationship
The Psalms—celebrate this covenantal relationship
The prophets—proclamations about the word of God
Several major views on suffering are present in the scriptures of Israel
III. Daniel Harrington and Daniel Simundson have done a lot of work on this topic.
And they identify five key themes in scripture, which developed as Israel suffered through political defeats, exile and attempts to regroup and to rebuild are as follows—five different ways of interpreting and engaging the experience of suffering
These themes in Hebrew scriptures show that various ways of interpreting the causes and meaning of suffering are based upon the fundamental reality of Israel’s covenant relationship with God. People of Israel believed that God was directly related to them through God’s covenant with them.
Individual and corporate experiences of suffering were reflected upon in the light of faith in this God who had promised to redeem and to guide his people. Israel viewed God as transcendent Creator, even more, they were convinced that God had drawn close to them and was involved in every sphere of their lives.
Lament—profound expression of faith in God’s nearness to his people and trust that their bond with God enabled them to call out to God with complete honesty.
The law of retribution—awareness of God as sovereign judge and on an honest acknowledgment of the ways in which the people had been unfaithful to their covenantal responsibilities
Suffering as mystery (book of Job)—author was convinced that traditional interpretations of suffering, especially the theory of retribution, were inadequate to explain every form of suffering. Author of Job depicts a God who draws close in the midst of intense suffering, and that communion with God is transformative.
Suffering and sacrifice—In a culture in which sacrifice was a standard part of religious ritual, it was natural for believers to interpret certain instances of suffering as an offering to God that had beneficial effects for the people.
The apocalyptic solution—suffering of the people caused by the enermies of God, both earthly and cosmic agents of evil. They counseled hope in the God that would eventually triumph and in the meantime, unyielding fidelity to the covenant.
The suffering of God (this theme added by Ryan)—Developed through belief in God who was so closely bonded to the people that God suffered from their rejection and felt their pain—God is vulnerable.
IV . The Theories in Detail
A The Theory of Retribution
This “law of retribution” is a significant theme in the Hebrew scriptures. Righteous people are rewarded with blessings, and evil people are cursed with misfortune. The faith of Israel is directly related to its fidelity to the covenant.
(Belief in life after death is a late development present in only a few traditions in the Hebrew Bible, and so the notion of reward and curse was usually limited to earthly existence.)
The Book of Deuteronomy
The Books of Joshua through Second Kings (composed by Deuteronomistic authors)—this history was not completed until the time of the exile in the 6th century BCE
These authors look back on the roller coaster of Israel’s history, and they interpret the fortunes of the people as a direct result of their faithfulness or infidelity to the God of the covenant.
Deuteronomy, chapters 27 and 28—The listing of blessings and curses
In Deuteronomy, chapter 30, Moses places before the people two pathways, one leading to life, the other to death (Deuteronomy 30:15-18)
Same perspective in Judges 2:6-23. In Judges, there is a recurrent pattern—the people repeatedly turn away from God to worship other gods, God gets angry and hands them over into the hands of their enemies, who plunder them, the people are oppressed and cry out to God, God raises up a judge to deliver the people from their oppressors. Then the judge dies, and the cycle starts all over again.
This view of human history perceives an inbuilt order to reality, and it is also a way to make sense of the suffering of God’s people.
The prophets—argue that by their own infidelity, the people have brought evil upon themselves (Jer 2:19), but the prophets also preserve a profound hope for the salvation of the people that will come with repentance, refuse to give sin and suffering the last word—they believe that God’s justice is salvific. (Jer 31:31-34) God deeply desires the well being of the people.
Wisdom literature (notes in italics on Wisdom literature are from www.cathtruth.com/catholicbible/wisdom.htm)
(The Semites were practical rather than speculative thinkers. They did not have a philosophy in the strict sense of the term, and hence we find no philosophical system permeating the pages of the Old Testament. In the religious domain the practical spirit of the Semites took the form of Wisdom or Chokma (Hebrew word that means wisdom). This wisdom was a more perfect and profound knowledge of revealed truths acquired by pious meditation and expressed in daily conduct. It was piety and sanctity according to the norm of divine revelation. This practical science of life, this heavenly wisdom, is generally couched in proverbs and parables which are all instinct with the thought of God and of His divine Law, and intended to lead man to a moral life and guide him away from sin. The following books of the Old Testament are classed as Wisdom literature: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon) and Ecclesiasticus (Sirach).
The Wisdom or sapiential literature is designated by the following additional titles: didactic, because it teaches doctrinal truths and inculcates a way of life; moral, because it deals with the principles of morality; poetical, because both the ideas and the form of treatment are poetical.)
—These writers, writing after the exile, write in a way similar to a genre of literature that was also important to Israel’s near Eastern neighbors. Suffering is caused by immoral behavior. The righteous person, the one who attunes his or her life to the wisdom of God inherent in creation, will find prosperity in this life. The fool will end in misery. Proverbs 11:3,5
Wisdom literature is not of one mind in this viewpoint.
Eccl 7:15—There are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evil doing. And Job presents a serious challenge to the theory of retribution.
Genesis 2-3 The Yahwist account of creation
“The fall” and original sin
Utter goodness of God who creates an environment of life within which human beings can flourish.
Creation of man and woman. Command not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This command introduces Adam to freedom. When the man and woman follow the promptings of the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit, they disrupt the proper relationship between God and humanity.
Consequences—expelled from the garden, new existence characterized by hardship and suffering, distance from God. In the next several chapters, we get the lead up to the flood.
Paul alludes to this account in his letter to the Romans, (Rom 5:12-21) What God intends for creation is goodness and life, and when human beings rebel against the commandments of God, suffering follows. This is the history of the whole human race, and all human beings become vulnerable to suffering.
But wait, how did the serpent get into the garden? The presence of the snake adds mystery and complexity to the story.
In Hebrew writing, there is a corporate and cross-generational dimension to the theory of retribution. The sins of one person affect the entire community, and the sins of ancestors can wreak havoc on the lives of their descendents. (Exodus 34:6-7) God’s steadfast love is much more expansive than divine punishment, HOWEVER, subsequent generations suffer from the evil deeds of their ancestors.
Two classic passages are Ezekiel 18 and Jeremiah 31:29-30. The catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem and the widespread suffering caused by the exile seems to have elicited further reflection about responsibility for sin. Ezekiel 18:2 -4 , Jeremiah 31:30.—prophets trying to get the people to move from fatalistic attitudes to positions of personal responsibility , an advance from absolute collectivism, but problems will arise when the notion of individual responsibility is taken to mean that personal suffering is necessarily the consequence of personal sin. This understanding is challenged in the book of Job and also in Jesus’ encounter with the man born blind in John 9.
What inspired this perspective among people of the Bible?
The viewpoint proves true to human experience in many instances.
A grain of truth in the adage that you reap what you sow.
Those who are sincere and faithful in their love for others usually discover fulfillment in thei lives through the relationships they form and the satisfaction that comes from these relationships. Selfish and hateful people end up isolated and miserable. The conduct of one generation does affect later generations.
Several essential biblical affirmations are implicit in the law of retribution:
God is personal and active in the arena of human history
God is just
Human beings have freedom, there is an order in the world, implying that cause and effect relationships do exist, human beings need evidence of God’s justice in the world; our actions do affect one another.
BUT
This perspective does not illumine specific situations of suffering, in fact, it does not apply to the vast majority of instances of human suffering. Most experiences of pain and tragedy are much too complex for such a simplistic explanation. If one argues that suffering must be an indication of personal wrongdoing, then the harmful effects of this perspective become manifest.
The Cry of Lament
When the people of Israel experienced immediate suffering, they cried out in pain, because they believed that God was accessible in personal as well as communal prayer.
In the Psalms, the laments make up the largest category—“They are full of activity.”
General structure of a lament psalm
Opening address to God
The articulation of the complaint
A confession of trust in God, often based on great deeds of God in the past
A petition for deliverance from the present suffering
A concluding thanksgiving.
Psalm 3 is a good example
Psalm 22 is probably the most famous lament (Matt 27:46. Mark 15:34)
The psalms of lament show that the Hebrew norm regarding suffering was NOT to suffer in silence, or to suffer alone. The lament psalms help us understand how Israel related to God—the Israelites believed that their speech drew God into the trouble, and then God would act and life would be restored.
The honest acknowledgement of negativity of these psalms represents an act of bold faith, a faith that is also transformed. This faith is bold because it insists that the world must be experienced as it really is and not in some pretended way, and that all experiences of disorder are a proper subject for discussion with God.
Transformed faith—Belief in a God who is present to and participates in the darkness, the weakness, and displacement of life. A God of sorrows whose character is one of fidelity.
Praying the lament psalms transforms life, because through praying these psalms the one praying comes to understand life as a pilgrimage through the darkness that is intrinsic to being human. New life is given in the dark places and suffering that we experience in our lives.
These psalms do not provide answers to the mystery of suffering, but they do make clear that the sufferer should cry out to God, to bring suffering to God ‘s attention and to cope with the suffering.
These lament psalms help us to find a vocabulary for our situations of suffering, to raise the theological issues at stake in their suffering, recognition that as human beings and religious people, we belong to a community of followers. (Harrington)
These psalms can take a suffering person by the hand and lead him or her into a personal encounter with the living God. The encounter may well be one that is shrouded in darkness. A pilgrimage through the darkness into deathly places, or the paradoxical experiences of the mystics, understanding the presence of God in absence.
III. Closing prayer, from the Book of Common Prayer, from The Great Litany, page 155
(Note influence of theme of retribution)
We humbly beseech thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities; and for the glory of thy Name, turn from us all those evils that we most justly have deserved; and great that in all our troubles we may put our whole truest and confidence in thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living, to thy honor and glory; through our only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.