Wichita is a city that feels more “small town” than “big city,” and this is even more true within our Catholic community. When a tragedy like the mid-air collision of the flight from Wichita to Washington, D.C. with a helicopter, there is a good chance that we know somebody who has been impacted by this. Even when we don’t know the people, they were flying out of our city, and, darn it, that’s close enough. Please make sure to keep all those people who lost their lives in your prayers, as well as those who are mourning them.

Tragedies like this usually lead us to wonder, “Why does God allow such things to happen? Why does he allow suffering? If he loves us so much, why did he create a world where Sin and Death have so much power over us?”

When God created, he created all things good. When he created angelic beings and humanity, he bestowed us with a gift not given to the rest of creation: free will. He desired for us to love him, but for love to be true, it must also be freely given. We have free will so that we can choose whether we will love God and accept his offer of eternal life. Satan, the Adversary, the Devil, the forces and powers of Sin and Death, they chose not to love God or to remain with him, and through many temptations, lead our first parents into sin. As our first parents and as representatives of all of humanity, they enslaved themselves and all of humanity to Sin and Death. But if that was the case, and God knew that would happen, why did he create us in the first place?

Because he knew that was not the end. His Son would come to free us from the tyranny of Sin and Death and break the shackles that keep us bound. He came to give us the freedom to choose to love God and turn back to him. He came to offer us eternal life and union with the Father. If God had never created us, we would never be able to accept this loving offer.

God made us so that we could be with him. This life is full of suffering, and it is even more acute and painful suffering when 67 suffer a sudden and tragic end of their life on this earth. The suffering is not meaningless, because God is with us through it. It is not pointless, because it is a reminder that God loves us so much he allows us to choose whether we love him back.

Let us lift those who are suffering up in our prayers and ask God to give them the hope to see his promise of eternal life and the courage to accept the offer.

Fr. Matt