Lent With Job and Saint Thomas Aquinas: Chapter Nine

In Chapter Nine Job responds to Bildad and raises the two main themes of the Book of Job:  God is all powerful and yet much evil is often visited upon the good in this life.  With these two propositions taken as true, why do bad things happen to good people?

After Blessed Job has shown that it is not his intention to argue with God, he proposes the principle issue in dispute between him and his adversaries. For Eliphaz had said that punishments from God are only sent for sins. Job had spoken against this in his first response. Since Baldath had tried to support the opinion of Eliphaz, Job repeats his opinion a second time saying, “I have said one thing: he destroys both the innocent and the wicked.” By this he seems to mean: Death is inflicted by God not only on sinners, but also on the innocent, which is the greatest of the present punishments. So, what you say is not true, i.e. that man is only punished by God for his own sins. Deuteronomy teaches that death comes from God, “I give death and I will give life.” (32:39) But although death is commonly inflicted by God on everyone, one thing which seems most severe is that the innocent experience many adversities in this life, besides the death which is common to all. He now intends to investigate the cause of this. So he then says, “If he scourges, let him kill at the same time,” saying in effect: Granted that the scourge of death is common to all, still it seems reasonable that the innocent, who are not guilty of their own sins, should not be inflicted with any other punishment besides the death which is due to the original sin. For if, as you (the friends) say, there is no other reason why someone can be justly inflicted with punishment except sin, whereas clearly the innocent suffer punishment in this world, it seems to follow that they are punished without reason as though the punishments themselves pleased God. So he says, “and let him not laugh at the punishments of the innocent,” for we ordinarily laugh about those things which please us in themselves.

If it is unfitting that the punishments of the innocent please God in themselves and yet the innocent are frequently found to be punished on earth, another conclusion which is equally unfitting seems to follow, i.e. that punishments of that sort do not proceed from divine judgment, but from the malice of some evil ruler who has power over the earth and punishes the innocent. So he continues, “The earth is given into the hands of the wicked,” as if to say: If the punishments of the innocent who are still punished on earth are not pleasing to God in themselves, it is necessary to conclude that God has committed the rule of the earth to some evil person, from whose iniquity, judgment is perverted on earth so that the innocent may be punished. He expresses this when he says, “He covers the face of his judges,” i.e. he obscures their reason either with concupiscence, hate or love, so that they do not follow the truth of judgment in judging. “If it is not he,” i.e. the wicked man to whom the earth has been committed who causes the punishment of the innocent, “then who is it?” i.e. who is the cause of the punishment. For supposing your position that sin alone is the cause of the present punishments, God cannot be the cause of this as he has already demonstrated. He expresses this when he says, “The earth is given into the hands of the wicked.” This is certainly true in a sense inasmuch as materialistic men remain under the power of the devil, as one text says, “He who commits sin is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34) However, it is strictly speaking (simpliciter) false. For the dominion of the earth is not absolutely given over to the devil, so that he can do what he likes freely on it. Whatever he is permitted to do proceeds from divine disposition which dispenses everything from a reasonable cause. So the very fact that the innocent are punished does not absolutely depend on the evil intention of the devil but also on the wisdom of God who permits it. Therefore, if sin is not the cause of the punishment of the innocent, it is insufficient to reduce it to the malice of the devil, but one must also find some reasonable explanation for God permitting it. So he clearly shows this saying, “If it is not he, then who is it?” as if to say: If the evil will of the devil is not the sufficient cause of the punishment of the innocent, one must investigate another cause.

Go here to read the rest.  I have always like CS Lewis’ answer to this question in The Screwtape Letters:

And in fact, in the last war, thousands of humans, by discovering their own cowardice, discovered the whole moral world for the first time. In peace we can make many of them ignore good and evil entirely; in danger, the issue is forced upon them in a guise to which even we cannot blind them. There is here a cruel dilemma before us. If we promoted justice and charity among men, we should be playing directly into the Enemy’s hands; but if we guide them to the opposite behaviour, this sooner or later produces (for He permits it to produce) a war or a revolution, and the undisguisable issue of cowardice or courage awakes thousands of men from moral stupor.

This, indeed, is probably one of the Enemy’s motives for creating a dangerous world—a world in which moral issues really come to the point. He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.

God wants winter Christians rather than sunshine Christians only.  I feel false in writing this since I am the first one to cry out when the lightest affliction is visited upon me, but when my son died eight years ago this May 19, I saw the truth of it and touched upon this in words I said at his funeral Mass:

The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away.   Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Job 1:21

To those who did not know Larry well, it might be assumed that he was dealt a pretty poor set of cards in this life.  Autistic, afflicted with seizures in his later years, and a brief life of 21 and three-quarter years.  However, to those of us who had the great privilege of knowing Larry well, he was blessed with many gifts, just as his life was a blessing to us.

1.  At his birth he was blessed with a twin brother, Donnie, who all Larry’s life would be his constant companion:  playing with him, and caring for him and guarding him from harm.

2.  He was blessed with two parents who loved him more than mere words can possibly convey.

3.  He was blessed with a beloved baby sister, a loving grandmother and grandfather and a cherished godmother, all of whom helped guide his steps.

4.  He was blessed with a wry sense of humor.  I will never forget the lopsided smile on his face as a toddler as he pretended to touch the computer printer paper roll because he knew that would always get a rise out of Mom and Dad.  His default expression was a smile.

5.  He was blessed with a joyful zest for life, from swinging on swings much higher than they were ever intended to go, to grooving to music he liked, swaying back and forth and rocking his head, to closing his eyes as he savored the big hamburgers he loved.  Life never grew stale or prosaic for Larry.

6.  He was blessed with a bold spirit.  At a year and a half he decided in May of 1993 that it would be a very good idea to walk to Renfrew Park without bothering to get permission from Mom or Dad!  In his later years he was fond of midnight strolls, once again without telling Mom or Dad!  One of my most cherished memories of Larry is him running ahead of the family like a gazelle, to Mass or to some other favorite destination. Life with Larry was an endless adventure, whether we wanted it to be or not!

7.  He was blessed with self-reliance, as I can attest from picking up the remnants of late night snacks that he had fixed for himself in the kitchen after Mom and Dad went to sleep.  Some of us march to our own drummer.  Larry, ever a rugged individualist, marched to his own brass band.

8.  He was blessed with a warm heart as the hugs he gave indicated.

9.  He was blessed with a good mind, defying the odds of his autism to learn to read and to memorize long prayers.

10. He was blessed with a love of God.  At Mass he said his prayers and always understood that Mass was important and solemn.  His physical presence at Mass with my family ended with his funeral Mass, but not the presence of his spirit.

11. Above all, he was blessed by being the child of a loving God, who for His own purposes took him into His heavenly kingdom in the wee hours of Pentecost the Sunday before last.

Larry enjoyed all these blessings, and he was a blessing to all who knew him, from the first day of his life to his last day.  May the same be said of all of us when the tally of our days is reached.  Goodby my son, until we meet again in the Kingdom of Love Eternal.

I know no evil in this world that can stop God being God, and I am content in that knowledge, as bitter as experiencing the evil can be.