“Where Is Your God?”
One Catholic’s Reflection after the Tragedy at Annunciation Catholic School
A Wound to the Body of Christ
The recent tragedy at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis pierced the heart of the Church. Parents, children, and teachers are left with fear and grief. Catholics everywhere are shaken. And the words scrawled in the shooter’s materials—“Where is your God?”—hang in the air and over the carnage as a cruel taunt.
That question is not new. It is the ancient cry of the enemies of Israel: “My tears have been my bread day and night, while they say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’” (Ps 42:3/41:4 DRBO). It is the mocking word hurled at Christ crucified: “He trusted in God; let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him” (Mt 27:43).
In the wake of this violence, the faithful are called not to turn away from that question, but to face it honestly, with faith and with the wisdom of the Church.
I. The Problem of Evil in Human Experience
Aquinas’ Presentation of the Objection
St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae, records one of the most powerful objections to the existence of God:
“If one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be wholly destroyed. But God is called the infinite good. If, therefore, God exists, there would be no evil. But there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.” (ST I, q.2, a.3, obj.1)
This is the perennial problem. Evil seems to disprove God. For if God is all-good and all-powerful, why does He permit children to suffer? Why allow an attack on innocence?
Aquinas’ Response
Aquinas answers:
“Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.” (ST I, q.2, a.3, ad 1)
God permits evil not because He is powerless or indifferent, but because He can draw from it a greater good that would otherwise not exist.
This is not an abstract answer—it is the Cross.
II. Scripture: The God Who Suffers with Us
Joseph, Job, and Christ
Throughout salvation history, God does not eliminate suffering but redeems it. Joseph, betrayed and enslaved, could say to his brothers: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20).
Job, stripped of everything, never ceased crying to God: “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25).
And Christ Himself took suffering into His own flesh. He did not answer the problem of evil with words alone but with His wounded body. “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is 53:4).
Evil as the Backdrop for Redemption
The taunt “Where is your God?” was hurled at the Crucified Lord. The answer was silence—for a moment. Then came the Resurrection.
The Cross reveals that God’s power is not shown in preventing every evil, but in transforming evil into a path of salvation.
III. The Magisterium: Teaching on Suffering
The Catechism
The Catechism of the Catholic Church confronts the scandal of evil directly:
“God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because He respects the freedom of His creatures… God is able to derive good from it” (CCC 311).
“In time we can discover that God in His almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil… thus the supreme good of Christ’s Cross came from the greatest moral evil” (CCC 312).
“In the most mysterious way, God the Father has revealed His omnipotence by freely choosing to conquer evil through the Cross of His Son” (CCC 272).
Pope St. John Paul II: Salvifici Doloris
In his 1984 apostolic letter on human suffering, John Paul II taught:
“In the Cross of Christ not only is the Redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed. Christ—without any fault of His own—takes on ‘the sufferings of all humanity,’ in order with His suffering to bring about salvation.” (Salvifici Doloris, 19)
Thus, in Christ, every cry of pain—every parent’s anguish, every child’s fear—can be united to His Cross and become a channel of grace.
IV. Facing the Taunt: “Where Is Your God?”
The words left in the shooter’s materials stab at faith itself. Yet we know this question is the same one raised from the dawn of time.
It is the question of the serpent in Eden: “Did God really say?”
It is the question of Job’s friends: “Where is your God now?”
It is the mockery of Calvary: “Let Him deliver Him now.”
And yet, in every instance, the answer is the same: God is here. He is not absent. He is with us in suffering, and His presence is revealed precisely in the mystery of the Cross.
V. A Call to Conversion and Hope
This tragedy cannot be explained away. But it can become a summons. The Church must answer the world’s taunt not with clever or even seemingly empty words of comfort, but with fidelity: with the presence of Christ in our schools, in our homes, in our parishes.
We must pray for the victims and their families.
We must support our Catholic schools and defend them as sanctuaries of life and faith.
We must turn away from despair, and help our children see that their true security is not in walls or locks, but in Christ who conquers sin and death.
Our society is broken not because God is absent, but because we have turned from Him. As St. Augustine wrote: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions, I,1).
The only true end of violence is conversion to God.
VI. A Prayer for Healing and Conversion
Let us pray together:
O Lord Jesus Christ, Author and Finisher of our faith, You carried the weight of the world’s evil upon Your Cross. We commend to Your mercy the victims of the tragedy at Annunciation Catholic School, their families, and all who mourn. In the face of the taunt, “Where is your God?” we confess with faith: You are here—suffering with us, redeeming us, and leading us to eternal life. Turn all our hearts back to You. Convert the violent, the despairing and the hardened of heart. Strengthen parents, teachers, and children with courage and peace. May Your Mother, Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted, intercede for us. And may we, with one heart, glorify You through Your One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.