Shortly after 400 AD, the Vandals had sacked Rome, which had been relatively safe for a thousand years. By that time, the Roman Empire had become "officially" Christian and it's citizens were in a panic because they felt the God of Christianity should be protecting them. They presumed that God took care of his own and that the bad were punished.
This is the time Augustine lived (thank goodness). Augustine quoted Matthew 5:45: "(God) makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes the rain to fall on the just and unjust." In explaining what this meant, he wrote that the difference in being Christian wasn't what God did, or didn't do, to intervene; the difference was in the Christian person: “The good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world’s happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness.”
Augustine goes on to explain that the fullest meaning of life and destiny transcends the here and the now. "Christians, living in the here and now, do not live simply for the here and now. Those who lament life’s miseries (the world is indeed rife with sadness and suffering) as if this temporal order were all that Christians possessed or could hope for are themselves suffering from spiritual myopia. The virtuous will make good use even of the inconveniences and misfortunes of this life, growing in patient endurance, hope, and charity. The wicked will simply grow more bitter, resentful, suspicious, and ill-tempered by the same experience." (1)
It's understandable how sad things must appear to those who see this world as all there is. But that is not the case, and for this reason we should never despair of worldly events.
The war between good and evil was already won - on Easter Sunday 2000 years ago. All that remains are each human being's individual battles (choices). The good news is the Lord's train leaves every morning when you rise. You either get on the train or you don't. Even better: if you miss the train on any given morning, you can get always on the next morning. Just make sure you're on the train when the lights go out.
Maranatha!
Ron
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