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Gospel: John 3: 13-17
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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In August 2021, two-hundred children began gathering with their families at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Haiti. All of the little ones were dressed in white, preparing to celebrate their baptism.
Thirty minutes before the ceremony was set to begin, the ground beneath them started shaking. Suddenly the roof collapsed, crushing twenty-three people, including a two-year-old child in her mother’s arms.
Somehow the mother survived.
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When I first heard the story, I let out a loud, guttural cry, asking, “Why God? Why would you let this happen? Is life not already difficult enough for them?”
I shared my troubled heart with a fellow priest that day, who said to me simply:
“At 3 pm on a Friday afternoon, an innocent man was nailed to a cross. We believe that man was also the Son of God. Three days later, he was raised from the dead.”
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The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead does not explain why evil exists in this world – nor does it make it okay for a church roof to collapse.
But it does tell us something about who God is.
Mysteriously, God permits evil to operate in this world, whether man-made or erupting from the natural world itself.
But only for a time.
Perhaps to give us a chance to fight against it, to choose which side we are on, while also longing for a better world to come.
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Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus likens death to a “thief in the night.” It’s in the very nature of a thief to come without warning, stealing what is not its own.
Are we not reminded of this thinking of those poor children prematurely stolen from their families?
But on this Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, we can stand in defiance of death, saying that there is at least one precious thing which death cannot take from us – not without our permission.
Our faith.
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While we may have many unanswered questions about good and evil, life and death, or why a church roof collapsed, today is an opportunity for us to reaffirm our core beliefs.
That life is not only a gift, but also a mystery.
That this world was created by a God who is good.
That this same God lived among his creation, that he suffered and died like us, and that he was victoriously raised from the dead.
That this same God has made a way for us all to live again, even if that comes through an unceremonious, sudden, and terribly tragic earthquake.
For nothing – not even death – can separate us from the love and life of Christ… not without our permission.
Christ Crucified, pray for us.
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Image credits: (1) Christ Crucified, Francisco Goya (2) National Geographic (3) Believersbibleschool..com