October 16, 2006
Listening to a Tragedy
On Wednesday of last week, almost all people in the metropolitan area were mesmerized by the news flash that a small plane had crashed into an apartment house on 72 nd Street and York Avenue. Most New Yorkers are familiar with this address, which is located very close to New York Hospital, the Mary Manning Walsh home for the elderly and Sotheby’s Auction House. Even though none of us knew the people involved in the tragedy, which included one well-known sports figure, we were all drawn in to the tragedy and to the response that was given by so many police and firemen, as well as the governor and the mayor.
As the news sank in of yet another accident and serious tragedy of such a dramatic type, it leads you to the question that so many ask: “Where was God when it happened?” It’s part of the very structure of human life, as I pointed out in my book There Are No Accidents, that indeed untoward events happen. The very context of human existence opens it to events that are distressing and seen as at least natural evils. When you put with this all the evil that is done by sins and sinful behavior, we all recognize that our lives are not as safe as we would like them to be. In order to prolong life, people use all kinds of nutritional supplements and medical assists; they are careful of their health, dieting, jogging and doing all sorts of things.
This is all helpful and good, but when all is said and done, the human being is a vulnerable person. Life is fragile and no one is exempted from the evils that can fall upon a human being. Our Divine Savior on the cross accepted the very worst of the human condition Himself when He could have obviously been exempted from it. He reminds us that He could have called an army of angels to deliver Him and He did not.
He shared the worst with us. This should always give us hope.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
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