Whenever something terrible happens, someone always asks, “how could a just God allow bad things to happen?” Unfortunately, the question is silly and unbearably self-entitled. Bad things happen because that’s how the world works. Sometimes people cause suffering and sometimes suffering just happens. Why? Because death and suffering are a part of life. Every human being who has ever lived has had to die, so on what basis can anyone ask, “why did this person have to die?” Death and destruction in nature are a necessary component of the natural world and ultimately contribute to the continuation of life, so on what basis can anyone call them evil? These things happen beyond the scope of human control, because, far from mastering the natural world, human beings are subject to it. We may not like it, but that is the way things are. For Scripture, it’s not a question why things happen, but of how the things that happen in the world can be coopted as teachers for the cause of the gospel; in Mark, transformed from the pain of human despair and fear into the pain of birth-giving for the life of the world. Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Mark 13: 1-10.Episode 192 Mark ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★