Once a certain Holy Man lost his faith. After years of tending to his spiritual community he despaired of the suffering around him and doubted the goodness of his God. He decided to leave his town and journey across the desert to his home village where he could start his life over again.
On his second day out in the desert he came across a young man and woman; just married with a baby. Their camel was immobilized with a sickness which was a problem because they were on their way to a new village to start their life. The Holy Man was appalled at God's Will for this couple. He raised his fist in the air and shouted, "If you are such a good God, why do allow these bad things to happen to good people?" No answer, but he didn't expect any. He went on his way.
Several days later he met with a large group of very good people, merchants, who were despondent over the loss of their goods to sell at market. There had been a fire and all of their materials were lost. They had nothing left. The Holy Man raised his fist in the air and shouted, "If you are such a good God, why do allow these bad things to happen to good people?" No answer, but he didn't expect any. He went on his way.
Toward the end of his journey at the outskirts of the desert he met an old man carrying a dead boy. The old man was a good king beloved by all the people of his land. The boy was to be his one and only heir to the throne. The Holy Man raised his fist in the air and shouted, "If you are such a good God, why do allow these bad things to happen to good people?" This time he wanted an answer and vowed to sit and burn in the desert by day and freeze in the desert by night until God told him why these awful things happen to good people.
After three days and three nights the Lord took pity on him and sent his angel to visit him in the desert. The angel appeared and said to the Holy Man, "You are so blinded by what you see and what your mind can understand. Truth lies in the unseen beyond human knowledge, there is an unknowable order that governs all events in your world of images. The Lord governs this order and He is Good above all."
"Yes, yes the Holy Man said. All well and good but what does this have to do with tragedy?"
The angel replied: "The belief in tragedy is the real tragedy. It is supreme ignorance of faith. Let me show you..."
"That first couple with the sick camel? The Lord struck the camel with a temporary illness to keep the couple from entering the village. You see, in the village there is an epidemic of cholera and the baby would surely have died."
"Those merchants? The Lord set fire to their merchandise out of mercy. You see, there were robbers in the area who would have stolen their goods and slashed their throats."
"The old man, the good king? Well, that little boy had an evil heart and would have grown up, killed his father and enslaved the people of the kingdom."
Faith is going beyond human knowing to the heart of Divine Love where there is only goodness and all things working according to a magnificent plan that only He can express.
No matter what we see, there is only a Loving Being guiding all the circumstances of our lives.
