A professor at the university asked his students the following question: “Did God create everything? The students shook their heads “yes.”
The professor then said “If God created everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And according to the principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.”
The students were silent after hearing such an answer. The professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to them for proving once again that faith in God is a myth.
But one student raised his hand and said: “Can I ask you a question, professor?”
“Of course,” replied the professor.
The student then asked: “Professor, does cold exist? Is it a thing?”
What kind of question? The professor replied: “Of course it exists. Have you ever been cold?”
The young man answered: “Actually, sir, cold doesn’t exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied on whether it has or transmits energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.”
The student continued: “Professor, does darkness exist?”
“Of course it exists,” the professor replied.
The student rebutted, “You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness. We can use Newton’s prism to spread white light across multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can’t measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a certain space is? You measure how much light is presented. Isn’t it so? Darkness is a term man uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.”
The young man now asked the professor: “Sir, does evil exist?”
The professor answered: “Of course, as I said before. We see it every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes and violence throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.”
To this, the student answered: “Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light and warmth. Evil is the result of the absence of Divine love in the human heart. It’s the kind of cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of darkness that comes when there’s no light.”
The student’s name was Albert Einstein.
This story came to me last night via Facebook. It is so very perfect to get at the heart of today’s readings. My own studies would say that the student Einstein was quoting the logic of Thomas Aquinas.
John 20:19-31
Today we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. The Gospel describes Jesus coming to the disciples on Easter Sunday night. Emotionally, what would that have been like for them? They had been overwhelmed by the evil of the crucifixion. Their belief in Jesus as the Messiah had been deleted, wiped out. Then, earlier on Easter some had seen the empty tomb, angels, and what seemed to be Jesus. What was true? What was reality? If it was true, what was Jesus going to say and do with them? They had not believed in him at “his hour.”
Then Jesus came through the locked doors of the upper room in his resurrected body and said, “Peace be with you.” He showed the disciples the marks of crucifixion on his now glorified body. The light of the resurrection began to dawn on them.
But not all the disciples were there. Thomas was absent. Why? We don’t know, but it must have been some form of doubt, because the Gospel this Sunday says that Jesus came back specifically to help Thomas believe.
He succeeded. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaims.
Beyond Belief: Genesis of God’s Path to Change the World
Forgiveness is a message even deeper than the reality of the resurrection in today’s readings.
The crucifixion was a holocaust of evil: rejection, false accusation, abandonment, extreme physical cruelty, nakedness, profound injustice—sufficient evidence of the profound presence of evil—the absence of God–in the world.
Jesus, as true God, emerged from the experience and the tomb proving that even a holocaust of evil could not overcome the power of the goodness of truth and love in God.
But that was only Part One of the story. Part Two begins today.
Part Two is the power of the goodness of God working IN and THROUGH the human Jesus AND his human followers through the centuries down to us to change the world.
Because we read the Passion as recorded by Mark on Palm Sunday, and, as always, the Passion as recorded by John on Good Friday, this year we did not hear what Jesus said from the cross as recorded by Luke, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
Jesus made a decision at the crucifixion the CHOOSE TO FORGIVE those who crucified, mocked, and abandoned him. He named it out loud from the cross for all the world to know and remember. Now, on Easter Sunday night and a week later on what we know as Divine Mercy Sunday, Jesus SHOWS US HOW to live forgiveness.
He comes to the disciples and both says and acts Peace.
Logic (founded on Thomas Aquinas) tells me: This is the way to stop the power of evil in the world. Even if Jesus had forgiven the religious leaders and Romans, but had come down deservedly hard on his disciples who should have known better than to abandon him, Jesus would not have given the clear message that living the resurrected life means that, as Christians, we do not let ourselves interact with those who have done absence-of-God/evil to us with resentment, malice, bitterness, hatred, “get-them-back” thoughts, words, or actions.
We go forward with peace in our hearts and words instead.
That does not mean that we as Christians simply accept evil around us. Jesus confronted the evil done to him in words and non-vengeful deeds. He confronted Judas, Peter, James and John, and all the disciples in what he said and did throughout Holy Week, especially on Holy Thursday.
In the trials before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, he said little, but he confronted their accusations by firmly saying, “Yes, I am.” Yes, he said, I am God in the flesh. I will not deny it.
He confronted those who insisted that God should fight back from the cross by crying out to the Father and giving up his spirit instead.
In many ways, this peaceful scene we have in today’s Gospel is another confrontation of evil. But without vengeance, malice, or desire to wound. It is confrontation of evil itself. Instead of absence of God, Jesus, in his response of peace, brings God into the interactions with the disciples through forgiveness.
This sweeping response was the beginning of changing them from frightened, humbled disciples on Easter Sunday night to powerful witnesses of the the Resurrection by Pentecost.
My Own Application
As a family therapist, I work with people struggling with overcoming evil with good via forgiveness in almost everyone I see.
And I have had many opportunities to do it in my own life. I have another opportunity in my life now. It’s a struggle.
But I KNOW when I forgive, I stop evil in its tracks. I choose to stop the chain. And, when I do, the cold darkness of the world will be replaced by the warmth of love, the light of truth, and a cleared road to proceed with life as it emerges.
Prayer
Lord, in today’s first reading we hear that the community of believers was “of one heart and mind.” That is not true in the Church today, nor is it true in me. The second reading points to both some of the struggles within the church and the forgiveness path to help us find ways to all live by God’s merciful love AND God’s commandments AND our human nature. Lead me, guide me, Lord.
