Dear Desperate,

Thanks for two very important questions.

First, we are not called to trust God to give us everything we want in this life. What we can trust God in is to give us what we need to overcome sin and attain eternal salvation. That is at the heart of Divine Revelation and Christianity itself. We can trust that He is willing to give us everything that would lead us to that end. All the other things, including our physical health and life itself, are not ours to expect or demand anything from God. It's like saying a child should be able to trust their parents never to allow doctors to give them a shot. But the child doesn't understand that the shot could save his life. Similarly, we should not assume that God would not allow unpleasant or difficult things to happen to us if they can ultimately lead us to eternal life. What we should assume, though, is what St. Paul states in Romans:

28 We know that all things work for good for those who love God.

Romans 8:28

Perhaps souls are able look back from Heaven to see how everything that occurred to them on Earth, pleasant and unpleasant, worked together for the eternal Good they experience now and will experience forever.

Your second question relates to the difference between guilt and effect. Jesus in the Sacrament of Confession (John 20:19-23) takes away the guilt of our sins. In that respect, our relationship with God is restored and we are reconciled to Him and His Church but the temporal effects of our acts remain.

For example, a child might disobey his mother and intentionally place his hand on a hot stove. After sincerely apologizing to her for his disobedience, he is forgiven, but the burn and subsequent scar may remains (perhaps for a long time). We cannot expect forgiveness to immediately erase all the consequences of our actions. However, Penance (along with the Eucharist) does provide the grace to overcome the effects due to our sins. The degree of our cooperation with that grace is how successful and expedient we are in overcoming these effects. So Catholics do believe that God provides healing, but this is a process that can be understood to be invaluable inasmuch as it provides opportunity for us to learn from our mistakes and atone for our sins. It is in that experience of the pain of these consequences that often make us right ontologically (meaning, in our being rather than just in a legal or abstract sense). We can atone for our sins even when the suffering we experience comes from someone else's unjust actions rather than our own.

That said, our sins are not covered as if with white snow, but they are extracted in Confession in the same way a cancerous tumor is extracted during surgery. After extraction, the patient is weakened for a while. God's grace is the medicine for the building up of strength so that we may eventually become stronger and a better person. Again, it is all for our good of those that love God in the big picture, in the end and in the process.

Peace,

Paul

Dear Desperate,

God does not always stop bad things from happening. He gives free will. If people were good, many bad things would not happen. He does protect us from many bad things, and he supports us when they happen to us as if they were happening to Him Himself, which they are. He also helps us turn the effects of bad things into grace for ourselves and others.

People are not snow-covered dung, as Luther said. We are good in our being, but wounded and strongly inclined to evil. God can heal and transform us, not just cover up our evil. Sometimes the cure takes a while, but God always gives the grace to grow in His love if we want it and cooperate with it.

I am sorry about the effects of your husband's sins. Trust God. He will answer your need.

Yes, there are people who have starved to death in the world, in places plagued by war and famine. In America, no one will starve, praise God. For those who die from evil, the recompense is in eternal life. Ultimately, there is no perfect justice in this life, and our real hope is for eternal life. The martyr's witness to the fact that the life to come with God is worth any suffering in this life. We don't seek suffering; we try to help others who suffer.  We try to fight against those who would cause evil to others and we defend ourselves and our family from evil in every way we can. At the Second Coming, we know that God will be with us and that evil does not win in the End.

Mary Ann