(St.) Padre Pio, the Italian Capuchin priest, would recoil in mock horror when his admirers would wish him 'cent'anni', a benediction meaning 'May you live a hundred years!'.  He viewed it as a curse not a blessing.

Pio preferred paradise to our valley of tears and, from anyone who would keep him here - other than God - he recoiled.  Pio viewed his time of earth, let us say, differently than his well-wishers. 

Pat Robertson's comments about the Haitian earthquake indicate that he does not share Pio's view. In fact, Pat Robertson got it backwards. That God rescued nearly 200,000  Haitains from the earth in one fell swoop is not a condemnation of them but a condemnation of us.

What did we fail to do for our siblings in Haiti before the earthquake that God felt the need to end their misery on earth and bring them to paradise en masse? Will the 200,000 Haitians rise up with the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south and condemn us for doing so little?

The Haitian "sign" troubles me not because of what it says about the Haitians but what it says about us. Why does it take an earthquake to nudge us to help our neighbors? Think about that. It took an earthquake to nudge us to help our neighbors! 

In Pio's view the 200,000 Haitians are the lucky ones, not us. Is Pio's view warped? I think not. Pio also views the crucifixion of Jesus as God's most eloquent profession of his love for us. Behind terrible things are sometimes powerful, often ironical, messages.  Yet,  the interpreters of the message don't always understand. Perhaps I am wrong too. At any rate, always remember that the door to paradise looks different from the other side than from our side.


John Bosco
Red Bank