Poor Rocco

This weekend I felt sorry for Rocco Granata. In Het Laatste Nieuws there was an interview, in which he spoke, among other things, about his faith and a good friend:

“I must mention Father Vanderdonckt. He was a Jesuit at Xaverius College and once my son Sam's Latin teacher. He became a kind of spiritual father to me. I loved him and now that he has passed away, I still think of him daily. With Father Vanderdonckt, I discussed the big questions of life. About God, the misery in life, the good and the bad. Why does God put people with disabilities in the world? The father sometimes let me talk for hours without interrupting me. In the end, he said: ‘That is the mystery of life,Rocco.’”

I find it regrettable that someone has such an important question and is then fobbed off with a 'mystery of life'.

It's no mystery; a clear answer to that question has been given by God himself through his prophets. It's a typical phenomenon of centuries of Catholic influence that such questions had to remain unanswered. I sometimes wonder if the Catholic Church genuinely didn't know the answer or if they wanted to keep the people ignorant.

For those still pondering that question, I can try to explain it from my personal experience.

It all relates to the great Plan of Salvation, also called the Plan of Happiness. We are all here on earth to learn. We have a lot to learn in order to be able to return to our Heavenly Father and live eternally. If we truly do our best and learn a lot, we can become true heirs of our Heavenly Father.

However, how can we learn anything if we don't experience setbacks? If our lives always went smoothly, why would we still put in much effort? Doesn't a person usually learn the most when something doesn't work out?

So it is with adversity. God doesn't press a 'setback' button to bring us misfortune. Anyone who presents it that way is completely wrong. But the question 'why does God allow such a thing to happen' is a valid question, because while God doesn't cause misfortune, He does allow it to happen.

This is also the case with, for example, disabled children. As a father of two autistic children, I often asked myself that question in the past, “why, God, why?”. But since I became a Mormon and understood the Plan of Salvation, I also understand the answer to that question. In my case, it is clear that I was not so caring in the past. I was concerned about the fate of others, but I literally became uncomfortable around children or the needy. I was happy to be a member of Amnesty International, but didn't know how to behave arounddisabled people.

By placing Laurens and Lucas in our family, He has resolved a major shortcoming in my character. I have now become gentler, more helpful, and more aware of the needs in our world. So I can truly testify that through that adversity I regularly learn new things that I will certainly need in the afterlife.

And that, my dear Rocco, is the answer: we simply need that adversity. That's not a mystery of life, that's a clear purpose of our eternal existence.