4th Sunday of Lent

Today the disciples ask the classic question: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (Jn 9: 2) In other words, why do bad things happen to good people? Sometimes, people are so scandalized by suffering of this nature that they decide that God does not exist at all. The answer of Jesus is: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him." (Jn 9: 3) Evil and suffering a mystery and not a consequence, necessarily, of personal sin. God does not will suffering yet he does allow it. This is so that a greater good may be brought about and God's power is manifest in a fallen world. This is shown most powerfully in Jesus undergoing the crucifixion so that the resurrection would be revealed. From the limitations of our human nature and the created things in general we are invited to strive for a greater and more perfect reality: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." (Rom 8: 18-21) In his vision of the end times John puts it this way: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw a holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: 'See, the home of God is among mortals. he will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away'." (Rev 21: 1-4)