If God is Good, Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Both Genesis, chapter 37 and Matthew's Gospel, chapter 21 tell us stories that involve jealousy, greed, and entitlement and how we can become so blinded by these negative emotions that we may actually disrespect, oppress, and even try to dispose of the very thing or person that God has sent to bless and save us.

These chapters are great reminders to us that even when we think all is lost, if we remain faithful to the Lord he will still work marvelous wonders in our lives.

From Genesis 37, we see how the sons of Israel hated their youngest brother Joseph because their father, Israel, loved him best of all his sons. They hated him so much that they plotted to kill him. One of the brothers, Reuben, convinced the other brothers not to kill Joseph outright, but to throw him into a cistern. His intention was to come and rescue him later. However, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming, and they sold Joseph into slavery to them for twenty pieces of silver.

Now, you may or may not remember the rest of the story, which comes a few chapters later in Genesis. The Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to the chief steward of Pharaoh’s court. Joseph had the gift of interpreting dreams and eventually, he was called to interpret a particularly troubling dream that Pharaoh had.

Joseph interpreted the dream and advised Pharaoh on how to avoid a great famine he saw headed for Egypt. Pharaoh followed his instructions and was so pleased with the results that he put Joseph in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

The famine spread to the surrounding areas as well, and Joseph’s father, Israel, learning that there was grain in Egypt, sent his sons there to buy some. They were starving to death. In the end, Joseph was able to save his entire family and be reunited with his father.

It was then, as is recorded in Genesis 45, that Joseph realized that through his faithfulness, God had taken the evil his brothers had done to him and the suffering he had endured at the hands of the Egyptians and used it to put him in a position to save them all from certain death.

Later in Genesis 50, Joseph’s brothers begged him to forgive them for selling him into slavery, but he replied to them, “Even though you meant harm to me, God used it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.”

In the most difficult circumstances of his captivity, Joseph remained faithful to God, and he understood that the redemption of his family was the result of his faithfulness. He recognized and remembered the marvels the Lord had done for him, even though at times everything seemed hopeless.

Likewise, in life, all of us are either suffering now, have suffered, or will be suffering. We live in a fallen world in which suffering, like death, has no escape. We are all going to experience it. The question is, how are we going to respond to it?

Joseph is a great example of how we should persevere in our suffering, uniting it to the suffering of Christ, thus allowing him to take any pain or hopelessness we endure and bring forth his peace, love, and mercy. Jesus speaks of this just prior to his ascension into heaven in John 16:33, where he says, “In this world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

In Matthew 21, we see a similar but different story of greed, jealousy, and entitlement. Jesus tells a parable to the chief priests and elders about a landowner who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants, but when the harvest came, the tenants refused to give the landowner his share. He sent his servants to collect it, and they were beaten and killed.

Then the landowner sent his own son, thinking, surely, they will show respect to my son, but the tenants killed him too, thinking they would be able to take not just his portion of the crop but his inheritance as well.

Of course, by telling this parable, Jesus was leading the chief priests and elders into a trap he knew, in their arrogance, they would fall into—which they did. Thus, they convicted themselves of seeking to treat Jesus the same way the evil tenants treated the landowner’s son.

Jesus, the Christ, the Cornerstone, was rejected by those who should have been embracing him as their savior, but instead, they were looking for an excuse to arrest him and kill him. They were looking for a way to maintain their own status and power.

Genesis 37 and Matthew 21 beg us to ask the question: "Why is it that, like Joseph’s brothers, the evil tenants, and the priests and elders, we so often allow greed, jealousy, and entitlement to enter into our lives?"

We all know that none of these things are from God, but we still allow ourselves to entertain them at times.

This penitential time of Lent is a great time for us to reflect on this question as we surrender ourselves to the Lord, strengthening our relationship with him. This Lent, as we spend more time in prayer and reflection, in Mass, and especially sitting quietly with Jesus in church, listening for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Let us recognize that, through the grace we have received in the Sacraments, the Lord has worked marvels for us, in that he has given us everything we need in order to follow him according to his will.Yet we must acknowledge that there are always things in our life that still hold us back from fully conforming ourselves to his love.

This Lenten season, let us humbly ask Jesus daily, “Lord, please unleash in me whatever is needed for me to become the Christian you are calling me to be.”

Amen.