On January 12, humanity was driven to its knees as the earth shook and the impoverished city of Port-au-Prince fell. Millions of Haitians now mourn the loss of husbands, wives, siblings and tiny babies — more than 200,000 dead and counting.
This was not a rich and godless nation but the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80 percent Catholic.
The great question in these times is always, “Why?”
This cannot be answered — not satisfactorily. And yet, it is not enough to remain silent in the face of such perplexing pain.
The world, connected as it is, will draw conclusions about this disaster, visited upon a tiny island of impoverished Christians.
Many believe that God does not protect, he is not good, he is not all-powerful and we are victims of a random, violent universe.
As Christians, we do not believe this and do not act as though it were true. Rather, we respond as only we know – we turn to God believing that he transforms suffering.
As Pope Benedict XVI said in the aftermath of the quake:
“Our thoughts, in these days, turn to the dear people of Haiti, and (we) raise up sorrowful prayer.”
“We raise up sorrowful prayer.” We suffer, but with faith.
The Catholic Church teaches that the faithful across the world are part of one mystical body. When one suffers, we all suffer. And all suffering is united to Christ by his death.
Two days before the earthquake hit, many of the earthquake victims went Mass, where they received into their bodies the very Body and Blood of Christ. At that moment, they were mystically united to Christ and to all fellow believers across the world and down through the centuries. Through Christ, we are one body, one bride that he dearly loves, that he suffered for in order to redeem.
Until Christ returns in final glory, however, we walk through a vale of tears, as have the martyrs and saints before us.
The church teaches that this sorrow dropped over the universe when humankind, through Adam, rejected God, thereby causing a great disturbance to enter the created order. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, human sin caused the whole universe to fall out of harmony. The consequence is that death made its entrance into human history — creation is now subject to the “bondage to decay.”
But as believers, we hold that God, through Christ, has come into the world to repair the rift and to redeem even our greatest suffering. We still experience the effects of sin, true, but Christ has transformed our suffering by uniting to us in his Incarnation and death upon the cross. Suffering is not random and without hope. When we suffer, Christ draws ever nearer.
Four days after the quake, the Vatican’s top humanitarian official said this.
“Without faith, this tragedy would turn into a complete disaster,” Cardinal Josef Cordes said in an interview with Zenit News. “That is why it will be essential for our brothers and sisters to pray together; experience Christians worldwide sharing their burdens as members of God’s family; know the compassion of our Holy Father. All these become sources of hope and energy.”
The cardinal pointed to Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, “God is Love,” in which he writes: “Even in their bewilderment and failure to understand the world around them, Christians continue to believe in the ‘goodness and loving kindness of God.’”
The church now has an obligation to be the hands and feet of Christ for Haiti. Let us join together in prayer and material support as the the universal church shows to Haiti the incarnate love of Jesus Christ — our one unfailing hope.
