Avenue of Grace

“‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.’”

John 9:2-3

Oftentimes instinctually we think that any misfortune or hardship is a punishment by some higher power for the bad things we may have done. This was also the Jewish understanding and explanation for those who are poor or sick or handicapped in any way. Either they sinned or someone in their family did and so God punished them for it by inflicting these hardships or infirmities. Jesus came to correct this understanding.

Tragedies and tribulations are a natural part of life. God allows (not causes) them, but it does not mean He abandons the person in his suffering. In the Gospel, Jesus and His disciples come across a man blind from birth and they ask Jesus whether he sinned or his parents sinned. To their surprise, Jesus said that it was neither the man’s sins nor his parents’ that resulted in the blindness. In fact, Jesus does not really discuss the source of the blindness; instead, He speaks as to the potential why. Jesus said that the man’s blindness will be the lens through which God’s power might be made visible.

Jesus promises that God will bring good out of the blind man’s defect and imperfection. What seems as darkness will be filled with light. What is invisible will be made visible. In the same way, God made Himself visible through the incarnation of His Son, the Word made flesh.

The Son of God Himself was not protected from human suffering. The Father allowed His Son to suffer, not because He did not love Him, but because He knows He will bring great good out of it. The Almighty God could have intervened and stopped the betrayal or the scourging at the pillar or any of the unjust and cruel punishments brought upon Jesus, but He did not. God permits this evil and allows the natural consequence of the people to take course. The people plotted and schemed and sent Jesus to die. God permitted it. But God did not allow Jesus’s suffering and death to be in vain. Through the trials and sufferings Jesus endured, the salvation of the whole human race was won. Sin and death no longer had the final say.

God does not remove the pain and hardships that befall us, but He does give us the grace and strength to endure them. He sees us through our difficulties and brings something great out of them. Our faith may be increased. Our knowledge of God and of our ourselves may be deepened. God will always bring good out of evil. Our suffering is not meaningless if we join them with Jesus’s.

Grant me the grace to see You in my hardships, Lord.