| So many of us, to varying degrees, have had to deal with that question this fall. And the passage of time hasn’t diminished the search for an answer. We were fortunate in not losing a partner, sibling, child or parent as so many others did on September 11. But we all grieve for this terrible and needless loss. The “Portraits of Grief” section in The New York Times, is still being printed and describes about 15 victims every day. The section so vividly illustrates the tragedy as well as the extraordinary fabric of America. We did not know Johanna well. We hadn’t seen her for years, but we know her parents, John and Ruth. Joanna’s grandmother, Marie Ramsey Sigmund attended college with our mother and they remained the closest of friends throughout their lives. The Sigmund family has always stood out in my mind as a foundation for goodness. That was certainly evident in Marie and she passed it on to her six children, and they no doubt have passed it on to theirs. Trying to sort through all this, I sent an inquiry to Fr. Paul Bernier, SSS, of our former parish in Manhattan and his response was, in part: “Rabbi Kushner, whose son died at an early age, tried to find a biblical answer to your question, and even entitled his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He basically had to admit defeat, and could only come up with the answer that if God could do anything about it, he would. |
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| FENNELL RAMBLINGS January 26,2002 Web Edition Vol. 6, No. 1 |
| Why do bad things happen to good people? |
| Johanna with Christopher Fennell 1986 |
| "The whole book of Job deals with this problem, and we have passages like John 9:1-3, which addresses the common assumption in Jesus' day that if anything bad happened to someone it was because of that person's guilt (or his parents or family). It just ain't so. For us Christians, perhaps the fact of Jesus' dying on the cross is the best proof of this. If anyone deserved to die of old age, it was Jesus. Yet, he was crucified.” |
| A fund-raiser in tribute to Johanna Sigmund On Sept. 11, 2001, Johanna Sigmund, one of Springside School's bright young alumnae from the Class of 1994, died in the attack on the World Trade Center. Johanna's parents, Ruth and John Sigmund, and her brother John chose to honor her memory with a scholarship in her name. The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time: http://www.philly.com/ (c) 2004 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved |