By CatholicVote | Created at 2025-01-16 20:31:27 | Updated at 2025-01-30 19:17:13
1 week ago
CV NEWS FEED // Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez comforted the faithful of Los Angeles in a recent article, telling them that while it is hard to understand why God would allow the suffering caused by the fires, He has not abandoned His flock.
Archbishop Gomez wrote that seeing people in Los Angeles “living like refugees and displaced persons in their own hometowns” caused him great sadness, and that meeting those who had lost so much was an emotional experience.
“In times like this, it’s understandable that we might question God’s love for us, to wonder where he is while good people are suffering,” he continued. “Why does God allow evil? Why does he allow natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods?”
However, he wrote, even though there are no easy answers, there still are answers.
He reminded the faithful that Christ promised that “God is our Father and that he holds all creation in his loving hands. He promised that not a single sparrow falls from the sky without our Father knowing. Then he reminded us: You are worth so much more than any sparrow.”
He then addressed why God would allow terrible suffering, noting that God’s only will for man’s life is for man to grow in holiness, and that Christ allows everything that happens in order to promote man’s salvation.
“This is not an easy answer, but it is the truth,” he wrote.
He then noted that Christ suffers alongside man. “This is the beautiful truth of the cross. By dying and rising from the dead, Jesus showed us that God can bring good out of even the greatest evil,” the Archbishop wrote. “And because Jesus conquered death, our own sufferings can find meaning and purpose when we join them with his.”
Archbishop Gomez wrote that we can respond to suffering with anger with despair, or by uniting the suffering with Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross.
“Even when we have been left with little, we still have love to give,” he wrote.
He then noted some of the heroic witnesses of redemptive suffering that have come forth.
“I’m thinking of the family down on their knees in the place where their home once stood, giving thanks to God and Our Lady for sparing them; the parishioners who risked their lives to put out the fire on the church roof; and the firefighters who rescued the tabernacle from a burning church,” he wrote.
Archbishop Gomez concluded by urging the faithful to continue being witnesses of love and asked for the intercession of Our Lady, Queen of Angels.
