Preface
Revelation speaks of God: “God is love,” and “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1John 4:8; 1:5).
Yet how difficult it is for us, human beings, to assent to this. Difficult – because both our personal lives and the life of the world around us seem to bear witness rather to the contrary.
Where then is this Light of the Father’s Love, if at the end of life’s path every one of us, with Job in the bitterness of heart, must confess: “My days are past; my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness. If I wait, the grave is my house… and where is now my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?” (Job 17:11–15).
From the lips of Christ Himself we hear that God watches over all His creation with the most attentive providence: that not a single little bird is forgotten before Him, that He even clothes the grass of the field, and that His care for human beings is infinitely greater – that “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:30).
But where is this providence, so attentive down to the smallest detail? We are all overwhelmed by the spectacle of evil, unchecked in its wild and merciless reign throughout the world.
Millions of lives – often scarcely begun, before they have reached even the faintest awareness of existence – are torn away with inconceivable cruelty. Why, then, has this absurd life been given at all? And so the soul, in its anguish, thirsts for an encounter with God, to speak to Him face to face:
“Why did You give me life? … I am weary of suffering: darkness surrounds me; why do You hide Yourself from me? … I know that You are good, but why are You so indifferent to my pain?
Why are You so… cruel, so pitiless toward me?
I cannot understand You!”
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