Where is a God in all the recent bad events?

[bob4]

Is there a way to bring God and peace to situations when so many people seem to want divisions instead?

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

If you go to the index of the Catechism you will find a good many other statements there about evil.

 

[whatistrue]

Who?

Take your pick. There are many examples even if you limit it to, say, Roman emperors.

I think people only compare to 1900 onwards

Then they should say so. But even then, we have, for example, Hitler for crazy dictator, two world wars and 2 large scale not quite declared wars for death and destruction, and Spanish flu and smallpox (until determined efforts with vaccination and contact tracing eradicated it). Plus others if you care to look.

These days so many peoples seem to want to fight,

That has been going on since there were people.

In Melbourne Australia and some other places police are even physically forcing masks onto people who refuse to wear them

Oh, the horror! Making people comply with instructions to protect others! Where will the oppression end!? (That was sarcasm just in case I wasn’t clear).

 

[goout]

When I was a child, I was taught an old song “he’s got the whole world in his hands”
It’s a nice sentiment - is it true or not though?

There are so many bad things happening lately, from Covid ranging to the growing racial divides and tensions between black and white people in America.
Does God have his hand in all this?
Sometimes it is hard to see this because of all the negativity and anger in the world and so on…

Sentimentality is based on a false innocence. Humility sees life as it is and accepts it as it is, with a lively hope for the kingdom of God.
Yes God has the whole world in his hands, and we are co-operators in bringing the kingdom of God to fruition.
It’s a messy and sometimes painful endeavor.

 

[fredystairs]

Apart from Covid, does it seem also like America is becoming more polarised?

I think that in some ways the United States has always been polarized. In the 1800s it was about slavery. In the 1950s and 60s it was about race and there were marches and sit ins. The 60s was about Vietnam. Now it’s about race and sex (homosexuality, etc.)

Don’t know how this will turn out; I just hope it doesn’t take another civil war to figure out our direction.

Pax