Rome (Thursday, 10-08-2015, Gaudium Press) Pope Francis at his morning Mass in Casa Santa Marta confronted one of the perennial questions of the heart: Why do good things happen to bad people and the contrary for good people?
Echoing the questions posed in the first reading, from the Prophet Malachi, the Pope reflected:
“How many times do we see this reality in bad people, in people who do evil, and seem to do well in life: they are happy, they have everything they want, they want for nothing. Why Lord? This is one of the many questions we have. Why does this brazen evildoer who cares nothing for God nor for neighbor, who is an unjust person – even mean – and things go well in his whole life, he has everything he wants, while we, who want to do good, have so many problems?”
The Holy Father drew from the Psalm of the Mass, Psalm 1, to consider that like the fruits of the Paschal Mystery, the fruits of the just are not always immediately seen.
“Now we do not see the fruits of this suffering people, this people carrying the cross, as on that Good Friday and Holy Saturday the fruits of the crucified Son of God, the fruits of His sufferings were yet to be seen: and whatever He does, turns out well; and what does the Psalm say of the wicked, of those for whom we think everything is going fine? ‘Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.'”
Pope Francis considered this end as illustrated in the Gospel parable of Lazarus:
“It is curious: that the [rich] man’s name is never spoken. He is just an adjective: he is a rich man (It. ricco, Gr. πλο?σιος). Of the wicked, in God’s record book, there is no name: he is an evil one, a con man, a pimp … They have no name. They only have adjectives. All those, who try to go on the way of the Lord, will rather be with His Son, who has the name: Jesus Saviour. It is a name that is difficult to understand, inexplicable for the trial of the Cross and for all that He suffered for us.”
Source Zenit