In a little town in Ireland, John O’Toole found a messy plot of land.   

He spent weeks cleaning up; then raking and fertilizing the soil.  He planted flowers, carefully watered them.  After a few months his garden was a thing of beauty.

As he was admiring his garden one-day, Fr. O’Reilly walked past and said, “What a fine garden you and the Lord have made.”  O’Toole said, “Father, you should have seen it when the Lord had it on his own!”

  

Many people ask, “Why does God allow so much evil in the world?”  Some even speculate that they could do a better job, if they were God.  God gave us free will so we could love Him, but free will can be wrongly used; it often is – we call it SIN!  St. Thomas Aquinas said, “God permits evil in order to bring out of it a greater good.”  He brought good out of His Son Jesus’ crucifixion; our salvation.  Since the fall of Adam and Eve, we have grappled with evil.  The best way that I can help explain it; is to share this story with you.

About 350 years before Christ a rabbi was teaching students his students.  In those days the rabbis would gather 4 or 5 students around themselves and teach them. One day as a rabbi was teaching his students, they saw foreign troops invade their town, they heard the screams and saw the fires – finally the rabbi looked up to heaven and screamed, “If only I were God!”  One of his students asked him, “Rabbi, what would you do differently, if you were God?”  “I would do nothing differently, but I would understand!”

We are not called so much to stamp out evil, but to nudge it out with our good deeds.  Today, each of us needs to spend a little time examining what in our own lives needs to be changed, what needs time in the confessional, what in our lives needs reconciliation.  Have you ever been seriously ill, and after you recovered - discovered a deeper appreciation of family, friends, life, God?

Today ask God to increase the gift of grace, so you may live in hope, faith and charity, and be a beacon of the Lord's Beatitudes in the world.

May God Be Praised!