Respect the forces in nature that give life but can also take it
away 
The Universe
(February 06, 2005)
The death toll from the greatest natural disaster in
living memory has reached 260,000 dead. Hundreds of thousands of others
are injured, abandoned, hungry and homeless.
This immense suffering coming so soon after the other disasters in the
Philippines, man made at that, has left us reeling, wondering and asking
why?
The Tsunami under the Indian Ocean off Indonesia raced at hundreds of
miles an hour washing all before it. As it hit the coasts, it
obliterated towns, villages, entire populations. Nothing could withstand
its power. The only human failure was the lack of warning that would
have alerted the coastal communities and saved thousands of lives.
What believers ask is where God was in this terrible calamity - and most
religious leaders of all faiths try to explain how God was not in it.
Some take a fatalist approach and say it was God's will but most do not.
Atheists say its evidence that there is no God.
If God is compassionate and caring why did He allowed this to happen,
believers ask.
The Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nicholas emphasized the positive,
saying at mass that God's light and love is not wiped out by disasters
but they are intensified by them "The light of God glows more
persistently in that awful darkness. It shines in human heroism,
generosity selflessness and courage."
Graham James, Anglican Bishop of Norwich, said that God has given us an
earth that lives and moves. It is not inert, it is alive - and that is
why we can live. Recent events were the starkest possible reminder that
what gives life also takes it away.
Some believers understand the concept of God as the creative energy from
which the cosmos emerged, grew and continues to expand to infinity. God
for them is this all-positive energy, the power of infinite goodness
that enabled the cosmos to be.
They understand God as the prime cause and first mover that brought
about the universe, the creative energy of all life.
They say we are composed of stardust and the earth was indeed formed
from the galactic explosions of collapsing stars and from that all life
emerged. Our bodies are made of this primeval matter, our spirit reaches
back to be one with infinite goodness.
The volcanoes, the turbulent climate and the earthquakes are the ongoing
movements of these creative physical forces. The emergence of life from
the chemical soup of these energies and the long history of evolution
led to humans.
To be human is to have been formed by these forces and even today,
having evolved from them, we must continue to live and endure them.
Destructive as they may be, we must remember all life emerged from them
and in many ways continues to be sustained by them as they influence
climate, the earth's temperature, the ocean currents, the wind and rain.
They make the continuation of life possible. To be human is to be an
intimate part of this. We are the children of infinite goodness.
It is more blessed to be than not to be, and since we choose life we
accept to live and respect the forces that give life and can take it
away in the cycle of death and rebirth. The Tsunami is but one sad and
destructive part of the living, moving earth.
Our humanity has reached a spiritual and intellectual awareness of this
creative energy, the infinite goodness that is present and emanates
through all matter and all creatures.
We are grateful to have life and worship its source-God. [End]
