God is always by our side – Tagle

MANILA, Philippines — As the Catholic faithful mark Easter Sunday or the resurrection of the Lord today, former Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle reminded Filipinos that God is always by their side even at the darkest times and even if they felt like they were abandoned.

In a Facebook recollection, Tagle said the Catholic Church does not dismiss people questioning the existence of God and his apparent absence, especially during their sufferings, as he stressed that “the question of God is almost posed in relation to the existence of evil and suffering in the world.”

“Others say, if there is God, why are there sufferings? That reveals that we have an expectation of God. We have an image of God that is not in harmony with suffering. There are those who ask, if He is a real God, why can’t he do anything against evil?” Tagle said in mix Filipino and English.

“They are serious questions. We don’t dismiss them. And we should not dismiss them, especially when they come from people who suffer because of the evil inflicted on them by other people,” he said.

Amid people’s doubts about the existence of God, Tagle said he is always present in their hearts and in everyone’s prayers, as he stresses that he does not abandon his people even at times they seem to forget him, especially when they are not in pain or in suffering.

He added that God is present for those who continue to believe in him.

“Where is God in the midst of suffering? God is in the prayer of the one who continues calling on God in the midst of suffering. God is present in the one who continues to believe even when the one he calls or she calls may seem distant. God is present in the one who continues to hope in the midst of difficulties and persecution,” he said.

“God is present in the one who suffers but continues to hope to see God’s hand even in a blurred way. God is present in the one who entrusts himself in the mysterious hands that he does not feel. My dear brothers and sisters, God is there. The son of the living God who is praying,” he added.

Tagle said people seemed distant from God because of sins. “The distance of God is a consequence of sins, for it is an act of shutting off God and a declaration of the sinners, and that they do not have God in their lives.”

“God’s seeming absence is really a presence in the one who prays and in the one who shows mercy and compassion,” he said.

He also pointed out that people could feel the presence of God in their prayers as nobody prays without the Holy Spirit and nobody can call God except the Holy Spirit, who is working on everyone’s prayers.

Fr. Flavinao Villanueva, a missionary of the Society of the Divine Word, echoed Tagle’s sentiments, saying that what the people are experiencing in the present time only manifests God’s presence amid the COVID-19 pandemic and during the height of the bloody drug war of the former administration.

“As we go back and open our doors to the Holy Week, it’s a reminder for us that God is there. No matter what happens, there’s a God who was the first to embrace the cross and new life follows, especially if we also follow him in the Paschal Mystery,” Villanueva said during Wednesday’s episode of “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s OneNews.