The answer lies in mercy and goodness here and now

Below is the 'Thinking Anew' column in today's 'Irish Times'.

Michael Commane
Last week the world learned of the horrific deaths of 92 people, almost all women and children, in the Sahara desert. Rescuers said the people had died of thirst after their truck broke down during their attempt to reach Algeria from Niger. An aid worker based in Niger said that the rescue party was very distressed. They had discovered the bodies scattered in small groups around the desert. Many bodies had decomposed. Wild animals had attacked the corpses. These people had begun their journey in hope of finding a better life for their families.

In the days that that horror made the headlines, BBC filed a shocking report from Syria where government troops and rebel forces had managed to empty a town and cause extraordinary mayhem. It was reported that snipers intentionally aimed at the stomachs of pregnant women and women were gang-raped. Another report mentioned how combatants were using rats to terrorise women and children. Even when you discount how each side exaggerates the misdeeds of the other, a picture of indescribable pain and suffering remains. And it is happening today and right in front of our eyes.

There are one billion people in the world today without enough food to eat. The inequality between women and men is universally acknowledge as one of the stumbling blocks to lifting people out of extreme poverty. On our own doorstep too we see instances of poverty and deprivation that we should not accept as inevitable.

It is a terrible abuse of Christian thinking to preach resignation to the poor and suffering by telling them that it will all be put right in the next world. That sort of talk is simply nonsense. Jesuit priest Peter McVerry speaking to Gay Byrne on TV last month stressed that any talk about God, which is not centred on the plight of the poorest and most fragile in society is really pious codswallop. And of course he is correct. But alas it seems to be part of life that there are always people who suffer and experience terrible pain and suffering. It is never ending.

In tomorrow's first reading from the historical Book of Maccabees we read about the martyrdom of seven brothers.

"The king, in a fury, ordered pans and cauldrons to be heated over a fire. As soon as they were red-hot he commanded that this spokesman of theirs should have his tongue cut out, his head scalped and his extremities cut off, while the other brothers and his mother looked on.” (2 Maccabees 7: 4) The Second Book of Maccabees was completed about 124BC. In so many ways, suffering continues and for those on the receiving end of it nothing really changes.

St Paul in tomorrow's second reading tells us that God loves us and in his mercy gives us everlasting comfort. (2 Thessalonians 2: 16) St Paul asks us to pray that God's word will spread everywhere and that we will be protected by God's power from the wicked and evil. It's bold to say it, it might sound unrealistic but as Christians we believe in a new order. Right now we are pilgrims in an imperfect world. We are challenged to bring about a world of peace and justice but that world only can reach perfection in and with God.

In tomorrow's Gospel (Luke 20: 27 - 38) when the Sadducees are trying to trip up Jesus about life after death he makes sure to tell them that he is the God of the living and not of the dead. The Scottish philosopher and theologian the late Donald MacKinnon once said that death is beyond our experience so we can't talk about it. There is always the temptation to talk about what happens after death but God's mercy and love is all about the now.

In living in the now, let's get on with living the mercy and love of God today in such a way that violence of all forms, the madness of war and the stupidity of gender inequality will be relegated to the history books and seen as never the solution to our problems The answer is in mercy and goodness, love and comfort.