Madam, - Patsy McGarry (Opinion, January 3rd) said it all, for God and the tsunami. Each of us has to question our image of God in the light of such horror. His piece reminds me of the Book of Job with all its rage at God for the unjustness of this life.
Thank you all in The Irish Times for bringing us its horror, rawness and pain, in words and pictures. Thank you for echoing our frustrations and powerlessness and our efforts to come to terms with it all. Maybe in time Patsy McGarry or someone else will write a piece with God's "updated" reply (see Job 37).
Continue to disturb our complacency, so we may respond effectively to the plight of this world we live in. - Yours, etc.,
PADDY MOLONY, Balally Grove, Dundrum, Dublin 16.
Madam, - Even in the face of such a terrible disaster and its aftermath, faith gives us a special perspective. It may be helpful for Patsy McGarry, as he wrestles with the question, "What sort of God presides over a 'natural disaster'?", to consider that while a parent may love a child dearly, it doesn't follow that he or she will interfere directly with the painful lessons that are being learnt in the playground. To do so would be to meddle in a growth process that is best achieved by recognising the function of that particular sub-group and allowing it to proceed without outside intervention.
As a corollary, if we believe that this earth is the best place for people to grow into the best humans possible - into the image of Christ - then it shouldn't horrify us that God, our heavenly Father, should not directly interfere in the process, no matter how apparently brutal nature might be.
And He is not remote. He has joined heaven and earth by sending his Son. Now, in 2005, the Father's Spirit and that of his Son lives on in us, the Church. So, no flight of angels was there to airlift the victims from the beaches, nor can we expect manna to miraculously drop down from heaven to feed the survivors. Christ no longer has any hands to help or heart to respond to the call of our brothers and sisters across the waters, except ours, since we are now the Body of Christ.
Incidentally, Dostoevsky's Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo was more interested in preserving the clerical status quo than in defending the faith or in giving life to the young girl, and in the story was willing to sacrifice Christ again. No doubt, in the face of this present disaster, we will witness a great response from this Church, which claims that faith without good works is dead. The people of south-east Asia may not recognize Christ in those who help, and may even, like Patsy McGarry, have a crisis of faith. And that's not disaster: at times, even the apostles didn't recognize the Lord and had their doubts. - Yours, etc.,
PAT SEAVER, Childers Road, Rosbrien, Limerick.
Madam, - Alistair Cooke's introduction to his first collection of "Letters from America" said the following in relation to the ending of the second World War. It seems remarkably appropriate today:
"Even the prospect of early annihilation should not keep us from making the most of our days on this unhappy planet. In the best of times our days are numbered, anyway. And it would be a crime against Nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly that it put off enjoying those things for which we were presumably designed in the first place, and which the gravest statesman and the hoarsest politicians hope to make available to all men in the end: I mean the opportunity to do good work, to fall in love, to enjoy friends, to sit under trees, to read, to hit a ball and bounce the baby."
I do not mean in no way to underestimate the calamitous events in Asia, but I feel it should help us to identify the important things in life and force us to dig deep into to our pockets, to the point where it hurts, to assist all those affected in their time of great need. - Yours, etc.,
ANNE B. CANTWELL, Park Lawn, Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Madam, - Allow me to congratulate you for the balance in your reporting on the dreadful disaster in the countries around the Indian Ocean. The unseemly competition between the donor countries is not only psychologically revealing but outrageously shallow and demonstrates the risks of giving "while the left hand knows what the right hand is doing".
While I am no admirer of Bill Gates or Bono, despite their individual contributions (Opinion, January 3rd), I was delighted that someone kept a spotlight on the global picture and the need to move from instant and sentimental giving to the more justice-oriented systemic imbalance in the world and particularly the daily death toll on the African continent which the world's govenrnments and the UN largely ignore.- Yours, etc.,
LIAM TUFFY, Nephin Drive, Enniscrone, Co Sligo.
Madam, - Patsy McGarry, your religious affairs correspondent, raises many questions in your edition of January 3rd. I hope the scepticism he expresses is no more than a ploy to provoke a response from your readers.
Mr McGarry includes the horror of a lingering death from cancer among his criticisms of "a God of love". My wife died just such a death on January 9th, 1997. Her doctor, a regular visitor during five difficult months, told me on the day she died: "Ten minutes in Olive's presence did me more good than any hour I ever spent in church."
She never expected to die so young, yet, from the moment her illness struck, she looked forward to going to heaven. And everything about her spoke of her belief that God loved her and cared about her.
I cannot answer all the questions raised, but I know there is a God of love and that even the worst experiences in life confirm that conviction. - Yours etc.,
ROBIN BOLES, Rocky Valley Drive, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - It seems to me that some media reporting of the appalling events around the Indian Ocean has reached levels of almost grotesque sensationalism.
Do we really need to see, again and again, the massed ranks of decomposing bodies to empathize with these unfortunate people? Is this not an insult to our feelings of compassion? Do 24-hour news channels really need to broadcast live from the scene, with all the expense this entails? Is this an expression of their sympathy?
It has struck me that there is something going on in this sensationalistic reporting which says as much about us, the readers and viewers, as it does about the events and aftermath over there.
Unfortunately, such disasters have happened before and will happen again - and in some ways are happening at all times. Yet although the earth may have rocked on its axis the world will continue to turn. - Yours etc.,
D.J.A. O'BRIEN, Birr, Co Offaly.