The Riddle of Life's Tsunamis
(First Part)

The most devastating natural disaster that the world has witnessed in the last century was the tsunami that hit much of Asia on December 26, 2004. The whole of mankind was glued to the TV, it was a most frightening spectacle and most puzzling. For the whole world asked the question "why"?

The word tsunami is a very new word. When we heard it for the first time, we thought it was some kind of a food-item, such as sukiyaki, spaggheti, salami, unagi ( an eel dish which was served me in Tokyo some years ago).

But we know now that tsunami is a most violent natural catastope, most destructive to life and property that was visited upon our planet. It was a most agonizing spectacle to the human spirit. General Colin Powell, the war hero of the Gulf War, who visited the devastated regions said that what happened was much worse than a war.

Predictably, the event led to a variety of theological reflections.

Many Christians took it as a condemnation of how the world, with its wars, "celebrated" Christmas 2004, including in the very birthplace of Jesus (Bethlehem), coming as it did on Dec. 26. Affecting as it did mostly non-Christian nations, many interpreted it to mean, God was angry with those who did not believe in Christ. A Buddhist monk declared that it was the punishment of the Supreme Being visited upon the sins of humanity.

What the Buddhist monk said was indeed the same as what many Christians thought. For don't we know the Genesis story of Noah and the Ark?

Humankind had become so sinful that God sent a flood to cover the earth, but saved the righteous Noah and his family. Let us talk about this later. The tsunami has led to expressions regarding human suffering, such as the Aids-tsunami Africa, drugs-tsunami, population-tsunami, hunger-tsunami. Of course we had our own experience of a less devastating tsunami

in parts of Luzon sometime ago before December 26. But there are tsunamis, not of international proportions, or national catastrophe. As a pastor, I have experienced and known so many who have undergone personal tsunamis. And by the way, we know that the tsunami of December 26, 2004 led to hundreds of thousands of personal tsunamis. In other words, we are dealing with the riddle of human suffering. What are our Christian insights with respect to it?

In the first place, human suffering must be viewed in relation to human freedom. One answer to the question why human beings suffer is simply this: a lot of suffering is the result of man's exercise of his freedom of choice. In other words, suffering is not the result of a willful act of God-for God's will is always good-but of the breaking of God's laws.

The Doña Paz tragedy was not a natural catastrophe. It was the result of a whole network of human choices: Did the officers in both ships have the proper qualifications for their jobs? Was there overloading or overcrowding of the Doña Paz? Was the captain watching Betamax and not manning his ship? Were the crews of both ships drinking that night while on duty? More recently, the boat Super Ferry was bombed which killed scores of people. The Abu Sayyaf admitted they bombed the ship. (TO BE CONTINUED)*

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