God suffers with the victims of earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters and helps them cope with the pain and grief, the Archbishop of Wales says in his Easter message.
He does not send disasters to punish people and neither can he intervene to prevent them happening, says Dr Barry Morgan, who will preach at Llandaff Cathedral on Easter Sunday.
Christ’s death and Resurrection show that God shares our pain and that His love overcomes destruction and tragedy.
He added that God wants us to help care for all victims of our world and to work for a more just society.
Dr Morgan says, “We live in a world where there is much tragedy – both natural and human. We’ve seen this recently in the earthquake in New Zealand and in the devastation of the tsunami in North Japan. Many people ask, where is God in all this?
“Christians cannot explain great disasters and suffering but perhaps we can respond. We believe that the God revealed by Jesus is the God of love and compassion and that his desire is for those things, which are for our good. He is not a heartless judge or a puppeteer or someone to be manipulated. The God of Jesus is the God who is always on the side of those who are suffering.
”God cannot solve our problems for us, but He is with us helping to shoulder them. That is the heart of the message of Easter – that the God revealed and embodied by Jesus is not a remote, uncaring God but a God who weeps and suffers with His world and shows that in the death of Jesus by sharing its sorrow even to the point of a cruel death.
“The resurrection of Jesus from the dead goes one step further – it declares that in the providence of God, death, destruction and tragedy do not have the last word. In the end, it is God and resurrection life that ultimately triumph and you and I, as disciples of Jesus, are invited to join Him in caring for all of the victims of our world, working for a more just society and so joining Him in His act of making whole His world.”
The Archbishop will be preaching at Llandaff Cathedral on Easter Sunday. The service starts at 10.45am and all are welcome.
