My prayers and thoughts are with everyone affected by the hurricane.

I appreciate as well the words of Father James Martin, Jesuit priest at America

“If any religious leaders say tomorrow that the hurricane is God’s punishment against some group they’re idiots. God’s ways are not our ways.”

Like Job of old we cannot explain why terrible things happen to people. Throughout his own sufferings, Job did not abandon God because deep down he knew that God had not abandoned him. And so we all continue our journeys though life.

I still believe the opening words of Gaudium et Spes:

“The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men and women of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of women and men. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of their Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for everyone. That is why this community realizes that it is truly linked with humankind and its history by the deepest of bonds.”

My next reflection, most likely, will be after the presidential election………