There was a book a few years ago, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? We all wonder that at times when we see a loved one going through some difficulty. However, Jesus would not have posed that question in quite that way. Jesus wanted us to understand that we don’t need to do anything to have God’s blessing. God loves us before we do anything and blesses us not because we are good but because God is good. That helps to explain the beatitudes when Jesus says: Blessed are the poor, the mourners, those hungry and thirsting, the persecuted. There is blessing to be found even in things that we consider negative because we discover God is with us no matter what. St. John expresses a similar idea when he tells us: We are God’s children now. The quality of our life doesn’t make us God’s children — it is part of our nature. What the saints exhibit is an ability to live in the present tense — not fretting over the past or worrying over the future. Live your present tense reality in God’s presence and find the blessing.
