Ah, the joys of having a Jewish mama. I grew up with both the Old and New Testaments being put together all the time.
Go back to the Old Testament. What you find in the Psalms are a series of personal prayers, pleas, speeches, and moments of thanksgiving. You’ll find that most of the Psalms are written in a first-person, one person only POV talking directly to God.
The Jews have always believed that God has a special relationship with their people. He speaks to all of them and has a strong tie to each individual.
Coming to Catholicism now, it’s only right to believe that we can feel the same way, for we are the inheritors of the Chosen People. Without Jewish tradition, Catholicism makes no sense. Without Passover, the Last Supper loses its meaning.
So here we are, Catholics, holding on to the same beliefs as the Jews, because they were the first people to accept and be given the Law. And we see in the Old Testament, in the book of Jonah, that anyone with the will to believe will be shown favor by God, and will be saved.
In Jonah, the traditional enemies of the Jews were set up to be destroyed if they did not repent, but God saw that they were willing to do so.
(Some folks here might believe that Jonah is a sort of a novella - current archeology and anthropology suggests that it might be a true story, but either way, the spirit of the story is why it was included, as it clearly depicts a correct understanding of God’s nature.)
God punished Jonah over and over again when Jonah refused to go preach to the enemy. When Jonah finally gave in, the entire people, from the King to the lowest slaves, repented and became God’s people, and were spared. Jonah was offended that his traditional enemy could receive Grace. He pouted, and God called him on his behavior. God created a tree or bush that kept him cool in the hot sun, and then the tree died. Jonah was angry.
Jonah 4:10-11
Then the Lord said, “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over the Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from thier left, not to mention the many cattle?”
If God were only concered with groups as a whole, he had no reason to be interested in the Nineveh, for they were enemies of God. They didn’t necessarily “play a part” in God’s plan.
And yet they, and all the animals that belonged to them, were of great importance to God at that time, because he wanted them saved.
The Jewish belief is the same - God cares about the individuals, whether they’re from the Chosen People or if they’re gentiles. Each individual plays a role in God’s plan. Each one suffers because of Sin, and yet God doesn’t turn His back on them. He is there, and He bears the sufferings of all His people, as Christ hung on the Cross.
Now let’s fast forward to the New Testament:
Matthew 18:12-13
What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the strays? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
And that’s nothing compared to all the individual healings, the teachings, his protection of the children and his warning not to lead them astray, etc.
Yes, bad things happen to people. Keep in mind that everyone suffers from sin. Even “blameless” people suffer from sin, because they indulge in it, even if they struggle against it. Saints are frequently the people who know more than anyone else just how much they don’t measure up to God’s perfection.
The truth is, some people we see who are humble, lovely people, strong and dedicated to God, and kind, and make us ashamed of ourselves and our haughtiness and our riches… these people probably wouldn’t be this example of holiness if they hadn’t been honed in the fire of tribulation. Sin kills all of us, makes us suffer. But in that suffering, we get better, stronger, more thoughtful. There are times when I think we could all benefit from living with hardships instead of having the world handed to us.
God does His best for everyone without taking away our free will. Because He is the Master of everything and in 100% complete control, He has lovingly allowed us to make our own decisions, and from time to time He will let us choose our own paths, as long as our choices don’t interfere with His ultimate plan. But because He is both the Sovreign Lord of all and because He gave us free will, sometimes we don’t miraculously win the lottery. But we always get something, some way out of the darkness.
I’m a spoiled, middle-class white chick, age 31. I have a lot of stuff handed to me on a platter. And God can do that for me both because of my circumstances and because helping me out doesn’t interfere with His plan. But even if I lost all my money tomorrow, or lost my new job, or lost my father to cancer, I know that God hasn’t forgotten me, and He is with me, and He has carried my pain on the Cross.
Why do so many people assume just because someone suffers, God isn’t there? God cares, or why the heck did he allow his Son, the Second Person, God himself, to die a horrible, painful death, bearing all our sins and transgressions, all our sorrow and pain, carrying everything evil in the world for us?
God IS concerned with individuals. He’ll send us the right direction. Sometimes it’ll be by strewing roses across a gentle path for us to follow, and sometimes it’ll be with a cattle prod. But ultimately the goal is Salvation, is Heaven. Don’t look around at the ruckus going on here and think, “Oh, God doesn’t care.” He’s just getting us cleansed so we can be with Him in heaven.
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