For the greater good.

Just hear me out. I was in eighth grade when I first learned the answer to this question on my class retreat. It has been ingrained in my head since that very day. Maybe it was because the awesome priest made us repeat it a thousand times, but I believe it has stuck with me for a reason. For many who will read this, you will disagree. You will become angry or even confused. Trust me, I have been at those points too.

I get it. How can children dying be "for the greater good?" How can a mother losing her baby be "for a greater good?" How can parents divorcing be "for a greater good?" Seemingly senseless and horrific things happen to people every single day. We often ask ourselves the question "Why would God let this happen?" And we get the answer above we ask, "What good could possibly come from this?""Why would God want this to happen to me?"

The truth is He doesn't.

When I first learned the answer to this question, I was a newly converted Catholic who believed everything the Catholic Church taught me without hesitation. I thought "Yes! God is all powerful! Something good will surely come out of everything bad!" Of course as I got older, I began to have some.. "doubts" for a lack of a better word. Nonetheless, I was and still am a strong, practicing Catholic but I struggled with this question for the longest time.. until I began some reflecting, some growing, and realized a different way to interpret the greater good.

God has a plan for each one of us. But it's not a step by step plan. He is not planning for these bad things to happen to us so it provides some sort of a lesson. I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in that idea, but it isn't true.

This is how a teacher described it to me.

From a very young age, we are taught that we have free will. We have the ability to choose which roads we take in life. Sometimes we get into a car crash (something bad or tragic that has come our way). It may not have been our fault, but again we all have free will and God does not and cannont control everything. But God didn't will that car accident to happen BUT He will take us out of the rubble if we let Him. From that, we will become better. We will become stronger. All if we put our faith in Him.

Father Gregory Boyle puts it like this, "I believe that God protects me in nothing but sustains me in everything."

When Jesus died on the cross did his friends and family know exactly how He was going to impact the rest of humanity? Probably not. But they had faith. They kept going despite having loss their friend and teacher. In the end, they helped bring about the Catholic Church which is still standing to this day. That would be unfathomable to think about if I was in their place! His death was for the greater good of all people.

For as long as we live in this world, bad things will happen to people and there will be suffering. But God isn't there to shield us from all evil. We wouldn't be human if he did. And He isn't there to bend to our will or enable our every behavior. In my mind, that is such a twisted idea. He is not some sort of genie or fairy godmother. God is there for us as a source of love and guidance. He's never showed any different. Our job is to be an example of Him and fight back against the evils of this world. For the greater good.

We will never be able to fathom exactly why bad things happen to good people. But when we get in those "car crashes", we have a choice. We can let the pain engulf us and let evil win or we can put our faith in God and pray that He gives us the strength to get through it. We then can become better people. We can become closer to the person God wants us to become and advocate for a better world, a world we want to live in, the world that we want generations after us to be able to live in, even if we don't get to see it. That is the greater good.

But again, the choice is up to us.

You may disregard all of this as a bunch of religious nonsense. That's your choice. And I'm not saying this answer solves all the problems in the world. Believe me, sometimes I'm still frustrated and confused. It is just the answer that I've learned and has helped me deal with life and everything that's coming my way in times of suffering. It stuck with me for a reason, and has helped me live the best life I can. You may not agree with me, but I'm sharing this because it may help someone else out there too.

If we put our faith in Him, fight against evil, and be the good, any pain that we experience now will not stand against the greatness that is to come.

It even says it in the Bible - I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. - Romans 8:18

So.. Why do bad things happen to good people?

For the greater good.