Everybody remembers where they were when 9/11 occurred. Personally, I was in the 6th grade – Mr. Brach’s class – when the twin towers were struck. To the dismay of many parents, we watched the events live on television, though, of course, most of us had no idea what was happening. We didn’t understand until later.
9/11 naturally recalls the problem of evil: Why did God allow this to happen? Why were so many people permitted to perish? I will not say much on this topic, and I doubt I’ll be able to relieve the suffering which continues to afflict the lives because of that horrendous event. But I do have some thoughts.
The first, incredibly, is this. There are many stories of people – one of whom is my uncle-in-law – that survived 9/11, when, under normal circumstances, they seemingly would not have. Meaning, one lady missed being in the towers because her alarm clock failed, which had never happened before. Another was spared because of some minor traffic incident. And so on, and so forth. Little things, peculiar and irregular happenings, which in some way or other prevented people from being where they otherwise would be: Ground Zero. As for my uncle-in-law, it was by some sudden impulse that he simply left the building: he was, unfortunately, the only person on his entire floor to survive. Months of funerals (and years of survivor’s guilt) followed.
I have responded to the problem of evil elsewhere (also here), so the only point I want to emphasize here is whatever God’s reasons for permitting evil and the destruction of life, He is still providentially in control, and so we can trust in his Greater Plan. Thus, the people who for whatever reason did not perish but under normal circumstances seemingly would have… well, I think it is obvious that God had his providential reasons for keeping them from harms way, and, conversely, had his reasons – however obscure and unfathomable they may be – for allowing those who perished to be there. While God may be able to be frustrated in some sense by the intellectual liberty of his creatures (naturally, God would never will people commit acts of terrorism), all, we must remember, is still plastic in the hands of our Lord, and whatever happens, happens, only either because God wills it or permits it. God can cause an alarm clock to fail, or a traffic incident, no problem. If he wants one of us to live – despite the intentions of some evil person(s) – we will, in fact, live. In one sense that is unsettling, but in another, reassuring.
May God bring peace to those souls who perished on that day, and those who continue to suffer.