No Quick Answer will Suffice
Dear Sisters & Brothers in Christ,
Today’s first reading from the Book of Wisdom contains an amazing line about God’s fondness for His creation, “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things!”
Everything that God has made is good. So then where did evil come from? The Catechism says that, “To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice… There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.”
The Catechism goes on to say, “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…”. The Catechism makes reference to the Old Testament account of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and how God brought good from the consequences of the brother’s sin. It goes on to say, “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’, brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption.” But the Catechism also says, “But for all that, evil never becomes a good.”
So, the reality of Evil is still puzzling, but faith allows us to trust in God’s providence to bring good, even if in mysterious and gradual ways, from the consequences of evil. We know that God’s grace can touch hardened hearts, even as it did in the Gospel account of Zacchaeus, and through the working of Divine grace, perfect His Creation.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life,
