Earthquake in Haiti, earthquake in Chile, earthquake in Taiwan, earthquake in Indonesia. Chances are by the time this posts yet another country will suffer an earthquake. What are we to make of all this?
Blogs offer no end of opinions, from the sterile scientific to the bizarrely biblical. According to the U.S. Geological Society, there are thousands of earthquakes everyday and the number of major quakes of 6.0 or larger has been consistent over the past hundred years. Fundamentalists insist we are in the End Days and the Rapture is at hand.
What are we, supposedly level-headed and intelligent Christians, to make of these disasters? Today’s gospel offers insight. Pontius Pilate had massacred some worshipers in the Temple, mingling their blood with their sacrifice. People were curious what Jesus had to say about this. Rather than play their game, Jesus ups the ante. Those massacred people were no greater sinners than others in Galilee. Jesus then recounts a disaster in Siloam where a tower collapsed killing 18 victims. Those people were no more deserving of death than all in Jerusalem.
Jesus turns the tables on them—and us—saying worse things will happen unless we repent. But accidents and misfortunes are not necessarily the punishment for sin. Rather than seek consolation in learning why some unfortunate people died in such a horrible way, we should look upon all tragic deaths—both natural and manmade—as a wake-up call. We need to examine our own lives and repent, that is, remove from our thoughts, words and deeds everything that does not give God glory.
We exist in a world of unsettling freedom. Accidents happen all the time. A split second may be the difference between injury and death or escaping without any harm. A tree falls. It may injure passers-by or spare all or, more mysteriously, kill one person by not another.
Often we have little or no control over things that happen around us—or to us—but we can be aware of our attitudes and actions. Not all suffer the consequences of their actions. Not all smokers get lung cancer and not all who get lung cancer smoke. Life is not fair. We cannot control accidents, the weather or people intent on harming us. We can and should reflect on how we live each day.
I remember when I first met Father Dennis Dunne, who died a few years ago. In the 1970s Dennis had been a Peace Corps volunteer, like myself. He had been diagnosed with cancer and given less than six months to live. He was undergoing chemotherapy. He came to Maryknoll to take a break from his treatment and when we first met he was clearly close to death. We prayed for him and with him.
Two weeks later after returning home he went for surgery and the doctors were amazed. None of his six tumors could be found. He wrote me a letter (this was way before email and texting!) in which he reflected on passing the six-month mark during which he was supposed to have died. “From that date on,” he wrote, “I consider each day a bonus, a gift.”
What did he do with the extra time he was given? Among other things, he became a priest. He lived another 35 years, serving God, the Church and his brothers and sisters in overseas mission.
His words "Each day is a bonus, a gift" moved me to live more purposefully and with gratitude to God for each new day of life. But I had my own close call with death in 1983. On September 1, I was supposed to be aboard Korean Air Line Flight 007, which was shot down by the Soviet Union killing all 269 passengers and crew. A few hours before departure I had switched my reservation; I didn’t want to travel 18 hours in the dark, so I transferred to a Northwest flight that left in the morning. That one decision saved my life.
Why did those people die? Why did I live? I do not know. Have I lived every single moment since then in prayer, praising God and doing only good? Hardly. Have I lived a totally productive life? Yeah, right. But whenever I learn of other's misfortune, I cannot help but think, "There but for the grace of God go I."
Each day God has to shake me from my complacency. Each day I need to respond to God’s on-going call to conversion. The earth will continue to shake. People will continue to die. None of us has control over when and how we will die. It is enough to make a good-faith effort on how well and fully we will live.
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