In view of the terrible calamities which afflict some parts of the world - the Middle East above all, also certain parts of Africa, especially those afflicted with Islamic extremism, Russian speaking Ukraine, and other lesser known parts of the world - one could be overwhelmed with the question, "Why does God allow so much suffering, so much evil, so many calamities?" We must trust in Divine Providence, in God's infinite justice and mercy, and that as St Paul teaches, "...we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints." (Romans 8:28).
In answering this question, the "Pastor Angelicus" starts his radio address in the middle of World War II (June 29, 1941) with words of deep sorrow and anguish for all his suffering children, "We, like you, feel our heart grow faint at the thought of the tempest of evil, of suffering and of anguish that now rages over the world."
Pius XII encouraged men to view the sad events engulfing the world through a lens encompassing God's providence for the salvation of mankind, and to look further beyond to the remote causes of the tribulation humanity was then undergoing, "[men] have before their eyes the limited view of a few years. God has before Him the all-embracing panorama of the ages. They [men] think of human events in relation to their proximate causes and immediate effects. God sees them in their remote causes and judges them in their remote effects. They stop to single out this or that particular responsible hand. God sees a whole hidden complicated convergence of responsibilities, because His exalted Providence does not exclude the free choice of evil and good in human selection."
The Holy Father reminds us that God always intervenes with the greater good of souls always as the ultimate end: "However severe may seem the Hand of the Divine Surgeon when he cuts with the lancet into the live flesh, it is always an active love that guides and drives it in, and only the good of men and peoples makes Him intervene in such a painful way." The cross is a way to expiate for one's own sins and the sins of others, and the pope reminds people that in midst of all the physical calamities they should remember that the ultimate evil is always sin, "they have forgotten that the cross is frequently a gift of God, a gift which is needed in order to offer to the Divine Justice our share of expiation. They have forgotten that the only real evil is the sin that offends God."
Complete Radio Address on, "Divine Providence in Human Events", June 29, 1941
"We, like you, feel our heart grow faint at the thought of the tempest of evil, of suffering and of anguish that now rages over the world. It is true that in the darkness of the storm there are not lacking comforting sights which fill our hearts with great and holy expectations courage in defence of the fundamentals of Christian civilisation and confident hope in their triumph; the most intrepid patriotism; heroic acts of virtue; chosen souls ready for every sacrifice; whole-hearted self-surrender; widespread re-awakening of faith and piety.
But, on the other hand, sin and evil penetrate the lives of individuals, the sacred shrine of the family, the social organism. No longer merely tolerated through weakness or ignorance, sin is excused, exalted and enters as master into the most diverse phases of human life. There is a decadence
of the spirit of justice and charity. Peoples are overthrown or have fallen into an abyss of disasters. Human bodies are torn by bombs or by machine-gun fire. Wounded and sick fill hospitals and come out often with their health ruined, their limbs mutilated, invalids for the rest of their lives. Prisoners are far from those dear to them and often without news of them. Individuals and families are deported, transported, separated, torn from their homes, wandering in misery without support, without means of earning their daily bread.
Before such an accumulation of evils, of obstacles to virtue, of disasters, of trials of every kind, it seems that man's mind and judgment go astray and become confused; and perhaps in the heart of more than one of you has arisen the terrible suggestion of doubt which perchance at the death of the two Apostles was a disturbing temptation for some of the less staunch Christians: "How can God permit all this?" Can an omnipotent God, infinitely wise and infinitely good, possibly allow so many evils which He might so easily prevent? And there arise to the lips the words of Peter, still imperfect when the Passion was foretold: "Far be it from Thee, O Lord".
No, my God they think neither Your wisdom nor Your goodness nor Your honour itself can allow that evil and violence dominate to such an extent over the world, to deride You and triumph by Your silence. Where is Your power and providence? Must we, then, doubt either Your divine govern-
ment or Your love for us?All men are as children before God; all, even the most profound thinkers and the most experienced leaders of peoples.
They judge events with the foreshortened vision of time, which passes and flies past irretrievably. God, on the other hand, sees events from on high, from the unmoved centre of eternity. They have before their eyes the limited view of a few years. God has before Him the all-embracing panorama
of the ages. They think of human events in relation to their proximate causes and immediate effects. God sees them in their remote causes and judges them in their remote effects. They stop to single out this or that particular responsible hand. God sees a whole hidden complicated convergence of
responsibilities, because His exalted Providence does not exclude the free choice of evil and good in human selection.
They would have immediate justice, and are scandalised at the ephemeral power of the enemies of God, the sufferings and humiliations of the innocent permitted by God. But our Heavenly Father, Who in the light of His eternity embraces, penetrates and dominates the vicissitudes of time as much as the serene peace of the endless ages; God, Who is the Blessed Trinity, full of compassion for the weaknesses, ignorance and impatience of men, but Who loves men too much for their faults to turn Him from the ways of His wisdom and love, continues, and will continue, to make His sun to rise on the good and the evil, and to send rain on the just and the unjust; to guide their childlike steps with firmness and kindness if only they will let themselves be led by Him and have trust in the power and the wisdom of His love for them.
Trust in God means the abandonment of oneself, with all the forces of the will sustained by grace and love, in spite of all the doubts suggested by appearances to the contrary, to the wisdom, the infinite love of God. It means believing that nothing in this world escapes His Providence, whether in the universal or in the particular order; that nothing great or small happens which is not foreseen, willed or permitted, directed always by Providence to its exalted ends, which in this world are always inspired by love for men.
It means believing that God can permit, at times here below, for some time, pre-eminence of atheism and of impiety, the lamentable obscuring of a sense of justice, the violation of law, the tormenting of innocent, peaceful, undefended, helpless men. It means believing that God at times thus lets trials befall individuals and peoples, trials of which the malice of men is the instrument in a design of justice directed towards the punishment of sin, towards purifying persons and peoples through the expiations of this present life and bringing them back by this way to Himself; but it means believing at the same time that this justice always remains here below the justice of a Father inspired and dominated by love.
However severe may seem the Hand of the Divine Surgeon when he cuts with the lancet into the live flesh, it is always an active love that guides and drives it in, and only the good of men and peoples makes Him intervene in such a painful way.
It means, finally, believing that the fierce intensity of the trial, like the triumph of evil, will endure here below for only a fixed time and not longer; that the hour of God will come, the hour of mercy, the hour of holy rejoicing, the hour of the new canticle of liberation, the hour of exultation and of joy, the hour in which, after having let the hurricane loose for a moment upon humanity, the all-powerful Hand of the Heavenly Father, with an imperceptible motion, will detain it and disperse it, and, by ways little known to the mind or to the hopes of men, justice, calm and peace will be restored
to the nations.
We know well that the most serious difficulty for those who have not a correct sense of the Divine comes from seeing so many innocent victims involved in suffering by the same tempest which overwhelms sinners. Men never remain indifferent when the hurricane which tears up the great trees
also cuts down the lowly little flowers which opened at their feet only to lavish the grace of their beauty and fragrance on the air around them. And yet these flowers and their perfumes are the work of God and of His wonderful designing. If he has allowed any of these flowers to be swept away in the storm, can He not, do you think, have assigned a goal unseen by the human eye for the sacrifice of that most unoffending creature in the general arrangement of the law by which He prevails over and governs nature? How much more, then, will His omnipotence and love direct the lot of pure and
innocent human beings to good.
Through the languishing of faith in men's hearts, through the pleasure-seeking that moulds and captivates their lives, men are driven to judge as evil, and as unmixed evil, all the physical mishaps of this earth. They have forgotten that suffering stands at the threshold of life as the way that leads
to the smiles of the cradle. They have forgotten that it is more often than not the shadow of the Cross of Calvary thrown on the path of the Resurrection; they have forgotten that the cross is frequently a gift of God, a gift which is needed in order to offer to the Divine Justice our share of expiation. They have forgotten that the only real evil is the sin that offends God. They have forgotten what the Apostle says: "The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us", that we ought to look on "the Author and Finisher of Faith, Jesus, Who for the joy set before Him, endured a cross.".
Do you, too, dear children, look upon your sufferings thus, and you will find the strength not merely to accept them with resignation, but to love them, to glory in them as the Apostles and saints.
Look upon your sufferings and difficulties in the light of the sufferings of the Crucified, in the light of the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin, the most innocent of creatures and the most intimate sharer in the Passion of Our Lord, and you will be able to understand that to be like the Exemplar, the Son of God, King of Sufferings, is the noblest and safest way to Heaven and victory.
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