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Fire In Los Angeles – What Do We Do When Everything Falls Apart?

 

Pope Francis has declared 2025 to be a Jubilee Year. The theme for the year is “Pilgrims of Hope”.

I have written previously about Hope. It is one of the Theological Virtues we need during this life and in Purgatory. Hope is not merely wishing for something. Hope is knowledge and belief that God will take care of us and keep His promises to us.

Right now, as I sit writing this, Los Angeles County is suffering the loss of life and property from a natural disaster; wildfires that are destroying homes, businesses, schools and churches in an area reportedly the size of San Francisco or Boston. It is hard to believe that a loving father would allow something like this to happen to his children. Yet God does allow it.

I cannot begin to speculate why God allows this to happen. I am not God. It is not up to me to question God on why He allows something like this. My duty is to discern how I should respond to what happened.

I turned to the book, Arise from Darkness: What to Do When Life Doesn’t Make Sense by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., for help in understanding what to do. He has a chapter with the title, “When Our Security Is Threatened.” I thought, “That looks promising. Let’s see what Fr. Benedict has to say.”

A False Sense of Security

Insecurity and uncertainty are facts of life. Obviously, people have a right to some economic security from what they can earn by work and careful spending. However, this right is more properly seen as our obligation to take care of ourselves so as not to be a burden to others. What has happened in the rich nations is that security has become a false god.

Well, that’s certainly uplifting. Let’s see what he says in the chapter titled, “What Do We Do When Everything Falls Apart?”

A Time to Believe

When things fall apart and all seems to be ruined and when the terrible question “What do you do when nothing makes sense?” comes right home, the answer is that it is the time to believe. It is the time for faith. In the strongest possible New Testament sense of that word, one must believe. One must grab onto God. It’s nothing abstract like: “I think there must be a God because there are such beautiful trees and stars. Where did this all come from?” No, it’s nothing like that. It’s powerful. It’s burning. “God, you are there, and I have nothing else to cling to.” One must be able to say, “I believe that God’s goodness is going to bring about some greater good by this horror. It may not be a great good for me in this world, but it will be a great good someplace, somewhere, perhaps for those I love in the next world.”

Fr. Benedict was a pragmatist. What he wrote does not sound very sympathetic. Sympathy is a wonderful virtue. Sometimes, however, we need to have the truth spoken to us even if it hurts.

The Parable of the Rich Fool

Fr. Benedict cited the Parable of the Rich Fool.

16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

How easy it is to fall into thinking how the world thinks. Certainly, the loss of property and lives in the fires is a terrible thing and people are truly suffering. No one is suggesting they should ignore their feelings of loss, bewilderment, hopelessness. All of these are natural emotions for humans to feel. We can’t help having these feelings. There would be something wrong with us if we did not have them. Fr. Benedict makes it clear. The proper response to all of this is, “it is the time to believe. It is the time for faith…. One must grab onto God.”

Why Hope?

“God does not do evil, but does cause that evil should not become the worst.” (St. Augustine, Soliloquies, 2)

Hope is not merely wishing for an outcome. Hope is knowing that God is with me. Hope is knowing that we are in the world but are not of the world.

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

What can we do for those harmed by the fires? The first thing is to pray. Join your prayers to their prayers. Donate to groups that will provide aid to those who have been displaced and need assistance just to have a place to sleep or food to eat.

While we are praying let’s pray for the conversion of those affected who are actively contributing to the evil and poison that comes out of the entertainment industry centered in the Los Angeles area. I am sure the vast majority of those who have been harmed, especially the children, are not a part of this industry of poison. Still, let us make our prayers known to God.

We all need to be Pilgrims of Hope.

 

Greg Gillen

January 11, 2025

© 2025 Greg Gillen

 

Image Credit/commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teachings_of_Jesus_26_of_40._parable_of_the_

rich_man._Jan_Luyken_etching._Bowyer_Bible.gif”>Phillip Medhurst</a>, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

Scripture Credit/Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006)

Arise from Darkness: What to Do When Life Doesn’t Make Sense/Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R./© 1995 Ignatius Press

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