Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Youcat commented through CCC - YOUCAT Question n. 51 - Part III.
(Youcat answer - repeated) “God allows evil only so as to
make something better result from it” (St. Thomas Aquinas).
A deepening through
CCC
(CCC 312) In time we can discover that God in his almighty
providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral
evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his
brothers, "who sent me here, but God…. You meant evil against me; but God meant
it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive" (Gen
45:8; 50:20; cf. Tob 2:12 (Vulg.). From the greatest moral evil ever committed
- the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men -
God, by his grace that "abounded all the more" (Cf. Rom 5:20),
brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption.
But for all that, evil never becomes a good.
Reflecting and
meditating
(Youcat comment)
Evil in the world is an obscure and painful
mystery. Even the Crucified asked his Father, “My God, why have you forsaken
me?” (Mt 27:46). Much about it is incomprehensible. One thing, though, we know
for sure: God is 100 percent good. He can never be the originator of something
evil. God created the world to be good, but it is not yet complete. In violent
upheavals and painful processes it is being shaped and moved toward its final
perfection. That may be a better way to classify what the Church calls physical
evil, for example, a birth defect, or a natural catastrophe. Moral evils, in
contrast, come about through the misuse of freedom in the world. “Hell on
earth”—child soldiers, suicide bombings, concentration camps—is usually man-made. The
decisive question is therefore not, “How can anyone believe in a good God when
there is so much evil?” but rather, “How could a person with a heart and
understanding endure life in this world if God did not exist?” Christ’s death
and Resurrection show us that evil did not have the first word, nor does it have
the last. God made absolute good result from the worst evil. We believe that in
the Last Judgment God will put an end to all injustice. In the life of the
world to come, evil no longer has any place and suffering ends.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 313) "We know that in everything God works for
good for those who love him" (Rom 8:28). The constant witness of the
saints confirms this truth: St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are
scandalized and rebel against what happens to them": "Everything
comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing
without this goal in mind" (St. Catherine of Siena, Dialogue on Providence, ch.
IV, 138). St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter:
"Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that
whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the
best" [The Correspondence of Sir
Thomas More, ed. Elizabeth F. Rogers (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1947), letter 206, lines 661-663]. Dame Julian of Norwich: "Here I
was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the
faith... And that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly
believe in what our Lord shewed in this time - that 'all manner [of) thing
shall be well'" (Julian of Norwich, The
Revelations of Divine Love, tr. James Walshe SJ (London: 1961), ch. 32,
99-100).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment