Why Does God Allow an Eight-Year-Old Boy to be Killed Waiting for His Dad at the Finish Line?

Last updated on: April 17, 2013 at 11:05 am by Kathryn Jean Lopez

Why Does God Allow an Eight-Year-Old Boy to be Killed Waiting for His Dad at the Finish Line? 2013-04-17T11:05:51-05:00 Kathryn Jean Lopez

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From a summary of a conversation on The Good Catholic Life, a Boston-area radio program yesterday:

God never wants evil to happen in the world. When a modern Cain kills his brother, God grieves. We can’t imagine what it’s like to lose one child like three families did yesterday. God lost three children. The only way to stop what happened yesterday was for God to eliminate human freedom. The risk of allowing love is that we can use free will to hate. Jesus changed even our suffering into opportunities for goodness.
He noted that God’s direct will is that every single one of us become a saint in heaven, but he permits things as a result of our freedom in order to prevent a greater evil. This is God’s permissive will. God will bring good out of this evil.

And how about this in response to evil? Work as hard or harder that those who work in law enforcement, medicine, and Homeland Security in the wake of the Boston marathon attack, taking up prayer as our weapons and armor. More:

there’s a certain powerlessness in human responses to this. There are no human words to adequately console. Our first Christian response is to fall to our knees. He said there was an outstanding contrast yesterday between good and evil, the response of goodness to evil. Fr. Roger said he thinks about how most of those injured or killed were spectators but in the marathon against evil there are no spectators. He thought back to the idea of Patriots Day which marks April 19, 1775 and the battle of Lexington Green. He recalled the poem which said it was the “shot heard round the world.” We have heard the bombs around the world and we all have to take up the weapons of prayer and work as hard as those who work in Homeland Security work to get at the root of all that.

Martin Richard, R.I.P. His dad asks for prayers for his boy, who just received his First Communion, and his wife and daughter, who were both seriously injured in the marathon attack. Pray for him and all his family.

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