“I shall never pray again. My mother was suffering from an incurable cancer, so we were told. We prayed and spent all we had to relieve her pain. After we had spent no more money to spare, we literally storm the heaven. I don’t see the point in praying any more. God doesn’t care about us for he has already decided what should happen.” 24 years old boy. Rather than delve straight into the topic, I would like to initiate it by quoting; Shakespeare.

“All the world a stage And all the men and women merely players They have their exists and entrances.” In this few lines of a sonnet a static understanding of God and the world is portrayed. God who is a director, he has given to each one of us a particular role. When the time comes to enter on this world a stage, we are sent, and when the role is over we are made exist the world a stage. In this context of the above lines said by the boy, the last lines projects the same ideology, so the boy is in a same boat as Shakespeare. Her mother was sent to play a particular role. Now the role is over as it was decided by the director-God. The above lines said by the boy have several elements involved in it, which I will deal one by one.

The aspect of prayer

“A God who heard everyone’s prayer would have been a God of children” Jaun Luis Segundo.

Prayer are not “gimme” requests(give this and give that), nor is it a matter of saying words from time to time, but an attitude, a state where one lives continuously in God’s presence, as in any deep human relationship. If God listens to all our prayers, we would be like spoilt children. Our God is God who struggles and suffers with us in our efforts to build a just world. The best example of what prayer is, is given by Jesus himself; “father, if you will, take this cup away from me. Not my will however your will be done.” The boy has a very narrow and static understanding of prayer (God’s providence). Prayers should always be heard. What is asked must be given. When prayed, miracle must take place. God must not refuse any prayer. However HE must fulfill it. If God is bound to answer our prayers then we human are superior to God, for God does not have any option not to answer them. Humans can confine God within the words of prayers. Human casts spell upon God by words and God can not but yield to their demands. Actually a prayer should be participation and respond to God’s constant invitation to share in his wisdom and strength. Man’s response has to be of openness to god’s light and strength through constant and intimate communion with god. Man’s ultimate, fundamental prayer is to ask “show the way and give strength to tread the way.” But ultimately it is he who is going to tread the way. In this light the meaning of Jesus’ words “ask and you shall receive” is not that ask whatever you want and it shall given to you, but ask and God’s spirit shall be given to you to attain for yourself what you have asked. God’s grace is nothing but God’s spirit that enables us to face life. Left to our petty strength, we would have made a mess out of life. That is why St. Ignatius of Loyola gives the axiom, “work as though everything depends on God and pray as though everything depends on me.”

Bonhooffer puts it another way, “live before God as if there is no God.” A concluding word

The prayer which comes closet to my understanding is to ask for meaning and strength from God, the ultimate source of inspiration and meaningfulness in order to have courage to change the things that I can, to accept the things which I cअn not अnd wisdom to know the difference. Differences between the static and the dynamic world. St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) had a static understanding of reality which was taken and developed by the roman branch of Christianity. He said that the story of genesis is literally true, that Adam and Eve were created finitely and by their “fall,” their perfection was destroyed. Adam and Eve had no excuse. They were adults who had knowingly committed the fault hence disrupted God’s plan. Hence this world was a vale of tears and all the life’s trails were divine punishment for Adam’s sin. This understanding will lead to passivity for this world is finished product and everyone’s including creature’s fate is destined. There is no room for freedom; freedom to love and hate. Whatever happens – an accident, a rape, an earthquake …etc, is bound to happen. That is the will of God, even the suffering and evil is planed by God. I would call this God a sadistic God, an immoral God, a culprit God. Who takes pleasure and joy in destroying. This God must be brought to a trial and hang. St. Irenaeus of Lyons (140-202) had a very dynamic understanding of reality which was taken and developed by the Greek branch of Christianity. Even St. Iranaeus took the story of Genesis as literally true but with the dynamic understanding that Adam and Eve were created as imperfect, immature creatures who were to undergo moral development and growth and finality be brought to the perfection intended for them by their maker. Their fault was something that occurred in the childhood of the race due to weakness and immaturity. And the world, mingled with good and evil was an environment for human development towards the perfection intended for them by God. This understanding will enhance one’s perspective towards reality and God. Our is a dynamic world, not a finished product, but still in the making. In this context providence is one of the several dimension of God’s relationship with the world, implied in creation. God’s providence consists essentially in providing creatures’ with the inner dynamism that orients and guides them towards the full flowering of their being and full realization of their selves. God’s creation aims at drawing all the creatures under one head that is the Omega point. This can only be realized if every being use their inner dynamism to become full being. God’s kingdom can only be established if men in his freedom collaborate with God in the realizing of the full flowering of its creation and employ everything that is provided to this sole end. Man as the fruit of evolution (humanization) is specially given the responsibility of becoming “fully human and fully alive” by using his gift of freedom plus all that is provided. There is yet more a dimension to providence which makes it still more divine. It is the direct involvement of God in assisting man to use this delicate gift if freedom. God’s role is not so passive as to disappear over the horizons but God helps us in our journey towards full flowering. In the light of above discussion, when critically analyses what the boy has said “…God does not care about us for he has already decided what should happen.” Seems very static understanding of reality. The boy falls under the same category of St. Augustine, for whom the reality and this world is finished product. Hence there is no chance to become fully human and fully alive. God has preplanned every stride of human being. Hence even his mother would suffer from an incurable cancer and eventually die. The boy condemns God for his mother’s death. He considered God the culprit for not heeding the prayer. As a result he makes resolution not to pray ever again. Aspect of suffering (evil) and death

In the face of evil and suffering, omnipotentce and love are two seemingly paradoxical attributes of God. If HE is al powerful and yet permits evil and suffering, HE is not loving. If HE is loving but can’t help permitting evil and suffering, HE is impotent. If HE is potent and loving, why evil and suffering at all? The Epicureans had shrewdly posed such a question. In my opinion evil and suffering do not come from God but it is man made and at times natural. Evil caused by deliberate human action like the terrorist attack on the Taj Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal. This can be called wickedness. This is possibly due to the instinct of survival, which we used for the survival of the fullest. It is a selfish drive in us. There is also suffering and evil not willed d by human beings like natural disaster and calamities like flood, famine,, earthquake etc. this is en evil which causes suffering, but it is a part of evolving world in which we are placed to gain our full flowering and maturity. At times behind natural calamities human hand is involved. The exhaustion of petroleum may cause the imbalance of earth’s chemistry and will encourage volcanos. Nuclear experiments are bound to have repercussion on the earth. Deforestation leads to draught, famine and starvation. Air and water pollution will lead to ill health and new diseases. Thus we can site thousands of examples where God can not be blames so easily. This evil and suffering caused on day to day life is nothing but man choosing hatred out of free will and freedom. God has predetermined neither our birth nor death. Once in a while we hear some talking that God took away a loved one form the family. Even some posed question like why did God take away my mother, my sister, my brother, my son, my wife? The real fact, we die is not that its God’s will but same reason why the things of the earth disappear, dissolve or get destroyed. We have seen an iron getting rusted after some period of time or river getting dry and wood rotting away. In short every thing that is made of material will slowly go back to its original material components. The death can occur on two ways. It may be a sudden death like someone getting heart attack or someone meeting with an accident and dying on the spot. The other is gradual process of getting old and the body gets exhausted and collapsed. Embodied beings are finite. Our being finite is God finest expression of love for us. This embodiedness is a greatest means to love to God and others. Just imagine if awe were not embodied, how could we express our love? God so loved us that he made us free beings. If we were not to be finite, there would be no need for growing into full personhood. In which case man would not have to struggle and make choices in conformity with this end. If he need not to make choices, the gift of freedom would automatically stand absurd. Man’s glory is in his freedom to make choices as he tries to bring the epistemic distance between his embodiedness and full personhood. We were given the bodies so that we could enjoy the freedom. Unlike angels we are not pure spirit but spirit-in-the-world. A final word

देसpite our rational analyses evil and suffering and death remains a mystery to be lived with the help of God’s spirit and not a problem to be got rid of. No amount of analysis can give an absolute, exhausting, compromising explanation for the profound reality of evil, suffering and death. And if it did, life would loose its punch. All that can be done is to keep purifying the understanding of evil, suffering and death from the possible misconception. Keep illuminating ourselves with more and more revelations of its profoundness and be open to God’s spirit. Once having done this; what remains is to place it in the Oder of love and face it.

NAVNEET