02-13-2021, 09:38 PM
The Will of God Made and Governs All Things
1. God controls all events, whether good or bad How can God will or allow evil?
Practical examples
2. God does everything with supreme wisdom
Trials and punishments are blessings from God and proof of His mercy
Our trials are never greater than our strength to bear them Treating of the Will of God St. Thomas, following St.
Augustine, teaches that it is the cause of all that exists. 1 The Psalmist tells us that "all that the Lord wills He does in heaven and
on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps." 2 Again in the Book of the Apocalypse it is written: "Worthy art thou, O Lord our God, to
receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and because of thy will they existed and were created. " 3
Hence it is the Will of God which from nothingness drew out the universe with all its grandeur and all that lives in it, the earth
with all that is on it and beneath it, all creatures visible and invisible, living and inanimate, reasonable and without reason, from the
highest to the lowest.
If God then has produced all these things, as St. Paul says, according to the purpose of His will, 4 is it not supremely right and
reasonable as well as absolutely necessary that they should be preserved and governed by Him according to the counsel of His will?
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? 5 But the works of God
are perfect it is written in the Canticle of Moses. 6 They are so well done that God Himself, whose judgment is strict and righteous,
found when He had created them that they were good and very good. 7 It is quite obvious that He who hath founded
1 St. Thomas, Sum. p. 1, q. 19, a. 4; St. Augustine, De Gen.
2 Ps. 134:6
3 Apoc. 4:11
4 Eph. 1:5
5 Wis. 11:25
6 Deut. 32:4
7 Gen. 1:31
the earth by wisdom and hath established the heavens by understanding 8 could not show less perfection in governing His
works than in creating them. So, as He is careful to remind us, if his Providence continues to have care of all things, 9 it is in measure and
number and weight, 10 it is with justice and mercy. 11 Neither can any man say to Him, Why dost thou so? 12 For if He assigns to His
creatures the end that He wills, and chooses the means which seem good to Him to lead them to it, the end He assigns them must be good
and wise, nor can He direct them towards their end other than by good and wise means. Therefore do not become foolish 13 the Apostle
tells us, but understand what the will of the Lord is, so that doing it you may receive the promise, 14 that is to say eternal happiness, for it
is written the world with its lust is passing away, but he who does the will of God abides forever. 15 God Controls All Events, Whether Good or Bad
Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything
with the exception of sin. 'Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives' is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and
Doctors of the Church, 'and God intervenes everywhere.' I am the Lord, He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet
Isaias, and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. 16 It is I who
bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them, He said to Moses. 17 'The Lord killeth and maketh alive, it is written in
the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh
8 Prov. 3:19
9 Wis. 12:13
10 id. 11:20
11 id. 12:15; 16:1
12 Eccles. 8:4
13 Eph. 5:7
14 Heb. 10:36
15 1 John 2:17
16 1s. 45:6-7
17 Deut. 32:39
rich, he humbleth and he exalteth. 18 Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done? 19 asks the prophet
Amos: Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God Solomon proclaims. 20 And so on in numerous other
passages of Scripture. Perhaps you will say that while this is true of certain necessary effects, like sickness, death, cold and heat, and other
accidents due to natural causes which have no liberty of action, the same cannot be said in the case of things that result from the free
will of man. For if, you will object, someone slanders me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me, how can I attribute his conduct to the will
of God who far from wishing me to be treated in such a manner, expressly forbids it? So the blame, you will conclude, can only be laid
on the will of man, on his ignorance or malice. This is the defense behind which we try to shelter from God and excuse our lack of
courage and submission.
It is quite useless for us to try and take advantage of this way of reasoning as an excuse for not surrendering to Providence. God
Himself has refuted it and we must believe on His word that in events of this kind as in all others, nothing occurs except by His order and
permission.
Let us see what the Scriptures say. He wishes to punish the murder and adultery committed by David and He expresses Himself
as follows by the mouth of the prophet Nathan: Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in my sight? Thou hast
killed Urias the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of
Ammon. Therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised me, and host taken the wife of Urias the
Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and
give them to thy neighbor and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing in the
sight of all all Israel, and in the sight of the sun.
21 18 1 Kings 2:6-7
19 Amos 3:6
20 Ecclus. 11:14
21 2 Kings 12:9-12
Later when the Jews by their iniquities had grievously offended Him and provoked His wrath, He says: The Assyrian is the
rod and the staff of My anger, and My indignation is in his hands. I will send him to the deceitful nation, and I will give him charge
against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
22 Could God more openly declare Himself to be responsible for the evils that Absalom caused his father and the King of Assyria the
Jews? It would be easy to find other instances but these are enough. Let us conclude then with St. Augustine: "All that happens to us in
this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God, by the disposal of Providence,
by His orders and under His guidance; and if from the frailty of our understanding we cannot grasp the reason for some event, let us
attribute it to divine Providence, show Him respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it us without
cause."
Replying to the murmurs and complaints of the Jews who attributed their captivity and sufferings to misfortune and causes
other than the will of God, the prophet Jeremias says to them: Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord
commandeth it not? Do not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest? Why doth a living man murmur, a man
suffering for his sins? Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the
heavens, saying, We have done wickedly and provoked thee to wrath; therefore thou art inexorable. 23 Are not these words clear enough?
We should take them to heart for our own good. Let us be careful to attribute everything to the will of God andbelieve that all is guided by
His paternal hand.
22 Is. 10:5-6
23 Lam. 3:37-42
How Can God Will or Allow Evil?
However, you will perhaps now say, there is sinfulness in all these actions. How then can God will them and take part in them if
He is all-holy and can have nothing in common with sin? God indeed is not and cannot be the author of sin. But it must
be remembered that in every sin there are two parts to be distinguished, one natural and the other moral. Thus, in the action of
the man you think you have a grievance against there is, for example, the movement of the arm that strikes you or the tongue
that offends you, and the movement of the will that turns aside from right reason and the law of God. The physical action of the arm or the
tongue, like all natural things, is quite good in itself and there is nothing to prevent its being produced with and by God's
cooperation. What is evil, what God could not cooperate with, is the sinful intention which the will of man contributes to the act.
When a man walks with a crippled leg the movement he makes comes both from the soul and the leg, but the defect which
causes him to walk badly is only in the leg. In the same way all evil actions must be attributed to God and to man in so far as they are
natural, physical acts, but they can be attributed only to the will of man in so far as they are sinful and blameworthy.
If then someone strikes you or slanders you, as the movement of the arm or tongue is in no way a sin, God can very well be, and
actually is, the author of it; for existence and movement in man not less than in any other creature proceed not from himself but from
God, who acts in him and by him. For in Him says St. Paul, we live and move and have our being. 24 As for the malice of the intention, it
proceeds entirely from man and in it alone is the sinfulness in which God has no share but which He yet permits in order not to interfere
with our freedom of will.
Moreover, when God cooperates with the person who attacks or robs you, He doubtless intends to deprive you of health or goods
because you are making a wrong use of them and they will be harmful to your soul. But He does not intend that the attacker or
robber should take them from you by a sin. That is the part of human malice, not God's design.
24 Acts 17:28
An example may make the matter clearer. A criminal is condemned to death by fair trial. But the executioner happens to be a
personal enemy of his, and instead of carrying out the judge's sentence as a duty, he does so in a spirit of hate and revenge.
Obviously the judge has no share in the executioner's sin. The will and intention of the judge is not that this sin should he committed,
but that justice should take its course and the criminal be punished. In the same way God has no share at all in the wickedness of
the man who strikes or robs you. That is something particular to the man himself. God, as we have said, wishes to make you see your own
faults, to humble you, deprive you of what you possess, in order to free you from vice and lead you to virtue; but this good and merciful
design, which He could carry out in numerous other ways without any sin being involved, has nothing in common with the sin of the
man who acts as His instrument. And in fact it is not this man's evil intention or sin that causes you to suffer, humiliates or impoverishes
you, but the loss of your well being, your good name or your possessions. The sin harms only the person who is guilty of it. This is
the way we ought to separate the good from the evil in events of this kind, and distinguish what God operates through men from what
men add to the act by their own will.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
St. Gregory sets the same truth before us in another light. A doctor, he says orders leeches to be applied. While these small
creatures are drawing blood from the patient their only aim is to gorge themselves and suck up as much of it as they can. The doctor's
only intention is to have the impure blood drawn from the patient and to cure him in this manner. There is therefore no relation
between the insatiable greed of the leeches and the intelligent purpose of the doctor in using them. The patient himself does not
protest at their use. He does not regard the leeches as evildoers.
Rather he tries to overcome the repugnance the sight of their ugliness causes and help them in their action, in the knowledge that
the doctor has judged it useful for his health. God makes use of men as the doctor does of leeches. Neither should we then stop to
consider the evilness of those to whom God gives power to act on us or be grieved at their wicked intentions, and we should keep
ourselves from feelings of aversion towards them. Whatever their particular views may be, in regard to us they are only instruments of
well being, guided by the hand of an all-good, all-wise, all-powerful God who will allow them to act on us only in so far as is of use to us.
It is in our interest to welcome instead of trying to repel their assaults, as in very truth they come from God. And it is the same with
all creatures of whatever kind. Not one of them could act upon us unless the power were given it from above.
This truth has always been familiar to the minds of those truly enlightened by God. We have a celebrated example in Job. He
loses his children and his possessions; he falls from the height of fortune to the depths of poverty. And he says The Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 25 "Note" observes St. Augustine "Job
does not say 'The Lord gave and the devil hath taken away' but says, wise that he is, 'The Lord gave me my children and my possessions,
and it is He who has taken them away; it has been done as it has pleased the Lord."
The example of Joseph is no less instructive. His brothers had old him into slavery from malice and for a wicked purpose, and
nevertheless the holy patriarch insists on attributing all to God's providence. God sent me, he says, before you into Egypt 26 to save
life. . . . God sent me before you to preserve a remnant for you in the land, and to deliver you in striking way. Not you but God sent me
here, and made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over the land of Egypt. Let us now listen to Our Savior himself who
came down from heaven to teach us by His word and example. In an excess of zeal Peter tries to turn Him aside from His purpose of submitting to His
passion and prevent the soldiers laying their hands on Him. But Jesus said to him: Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? 27
In fact He attributed the suffering and ignominy of His passion not to the Jews who accused him, not to Judas who betrayed Him, nor to
Pilate who condemned Him, nor to the soldiers who ill-treated and
25 Job 1:21
26 Gen. 45:5-8
27 John 18:11
crucified Him, nor to the devil who incited them all, though they were the immediate causes of His sufferings, but to God, and to God
not considered as a strict judge but as a loving and beloved Father. Let us never then attribute our losses, our disappointments,
our afflictions, our humiliations to the devil or to men, but to God as their real source. "To act otherwise" says St. Dorothy, "would be to
do the same as a dog who vents his anger on the stone instead of putting the blame on the hand that threw it at him." So let us be
careful not to say 'So-and-so is the cause of my misfortune.' Your misfortunes are the work not of this or that person but of God. And
what should give you reassurance is that God, the sovereign good, is guided in all His actions by His most profound wisdom for holy and
supernatural purposes.
God Does Everything With Supreme Wisdom All wisdom comes from the Lord God we find in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, and with him
it remains forever, and is before all time . . . and he has poured her forth upon all his works. 28 How manifold are your works, O Lord!
exclaims the Psalmist, In wisdom thou hast wrought them all. 29 It could not be otherwise, for God, being infinite wisdom and acting by
Himself, cannot act except in an infinitely wise manner.
For this reason many of the Doctors of the Church hold that, having regard to the circumstances, His works are so perfect that
they could not be more so, and so good that they could not be better. 'We ought then' says St. Basil, 'to ponder well on this thought, that
we are the work of a good Workman, and that He dispenses and distributes to us all things great and small with the wisest
providence, so that there is nothing had, nothing that could even be conceived better.' The works of the Lord are great the Psalmist again
says, exquisite in all their delights. 30 His wisdom is especially shown in the right proportion between the means He employs and the end
He has in view. She reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well. 31 She (Wisdom) governs men with admirable order, she
leads them to their happiness mightily but without violence or constraint, with sweetness and not only with sweetness, but still
more with circumspection.
But though you have might at your disposal, says the Sage,you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us. 32
You are endowed with an infinite strength that nothing can resist but with us you do not use the absolute power of your sovereign
authority. You treat us with extreme condescension and adapting yourself to the weakness of nature, design to place each one of us in
the best and most suitable situation for working out our salvation. You dispose of us with great favor as persons who at your living
image and of noble origin and who, because of their condition, are
28 Eccles. 1:1,8
29 Ps. 103:24
30 Ps. 110:2
31 Wis. 8:1
32 Wis. 12:18
not to be ordered in the voice of a master as if they were slaves, but with care and consideration. You treat us with the same
circumspection as one handles a vase of precious crystal or fragile pottery for fear of breaking it. When it is necessary for our good for
you to afflict us or send us some illness or make us suffer some loss or pain, you always do so with a certain respect and a kind of
deference. As a surgeon who has to operate on a person of importance takes extra care to cause him as little suffering as
possible and only what is strictly necessary for his recovery, or as a father unwillingly punishes a son he loves dearly only because he is
obliged to do so for his son's good, so God treats us as noble beings for whom He has the highest regard, or as beloved children whom he
chastises because he loves them. 33 Trials and Punishments Are Blessings From God Looking, St. Paul tells us, towards the author and finisher of
faith, Jesus (the only begotten and beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased) .... Consider then Him Who endured such opposition
from sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. For you have not yet resisted unto blood (as He did) in the
struggle with sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation that is addressed to you as sons, saying, My son, neglect not the discipline of
the Lord, neither be thou weary when thou art rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves He chastises, and He scourges every son whom
He receives. Continue under discipline, for God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not correct? 34
In short, the purpose for which God acts is a high and holy one, His own glory and the good of His creatures. Infinitely good -- Goodness
itself -- He seeks to make them all perfect by drawing them towards Him and making them sharers in His divinity as far as they are
capable. But because of the close ties He has established with us by the union of our nature with His in the person of his Son, we in a still
more special manner are the object of His benevolence and tender care. A glove is not more fitted to a hand or a sword to a scabbard
than what He does and ordains in us and for us is suited to our
33 Apoc. 3:19
34 Heb. 12:2-7
strength and capabilities, so that everything may serve to our advantage and perfection if we but cooperate with the designs of his
providence. Our Trials Are Never Greater Than Our Strength to Bear Them Do not let ourselves be troubled when we are sometimes
beset by adversity, for we know that it is meant for our spiritual welfare and carefully proportioned to our needs, and that a limit has
been set to it by the wisdom of the same God who has set a bound to the ocean. Sometimes it might seem as if the sea in its fury would
overflow and flood the land, but it respects the limits of its shore and its waves break upon the yielding sand. There is no tribulation or
temptation whose limits God has not appointed so as to serve not for our destruction but for our salvation. God is faithful says the Apostle,
and will not permit you to be tempted (or afflicted) beyond your strength, 35 but it is necessary for you to be so, since through many
tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God 36 in the steps of our Redeemer who said of Himself, Did not the Christ have to suffer all
these things before entering into His glory? 37 If you refused to accept these tribulations you would be acting against your best
interests. You are like a block of marble in the hands of the sculptor. The sculptor must chip, hew and smooth it to make it into a statue
that is a work of art. God wishes to make us the living image of Himself. All we need to think of is to keep still in His hands while He
works on us, and we can rest assured that the chisel will never strike the slightest blow that is not needed for His purposes and our
sanctification; for, as St. Paul says, the will of God is your sanctification. 38
35 1 Cor. 10:13
36 Acts. 14:21
37 Luke 24:26
38 I Thessalonians 4:3
1. God controls all events, whether good or bad How can God will or allow evil?
Practical examples
2. God does everything with supreme wisdom
Trials and punishments are blessings from God and proof of His mercy
Our trials are never greater than our strength to bear them Treating of the Will of God St. Thomas, following St.
Augustine, teaches that it is the cause of all that exists. 1 The Psalmist tells us that "all that the Lord wills He does in heaven and
on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps." 2 Again in the Book of the Apocalypse it is written: "Worthy art thou, O Lord our God, to
receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and because of thy will they existed and were created. " 3
Hence it is the Will of God which from nothingness drew out the universe with all its grandeur and all that lives in it, the earth
with all that is on it and beneath it, all creatures visible and invisible, living and inanimate, reasonable and without reason, from the
highest to the lowest.
If God then has produced all these things, as St. Paul says, according to the purpose of His will, 4 is it not supremely right and
reasonable as well as absolutely necessary that they should be preserved and governed by Him according to the counsel of His will?
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? 5 But the works of God
are perfect it is written in the Canticle of Moses. 6 They are so well done that God Himself, whose judgment is strict and righteous,
found when He had created them that they were good and very good. 7 It is quite obvious that He who hath founded
1 St. Thomas, Sum. p. 1, q. 19, a. 4; St. Augustine, De Gen.
2 Ps. 134:6
3 Apoc. 4:11
4 Eph. 1:5
5 Wis. 11:25
6 Deut. 32:4
7 Gen. 1:31
the earth by wisdom and hath established the heavens by understanding 8 could not show less perfection in governing His
works than in creating them. So, as He is careful to remind us, if his Providence continues to have care of all things, 9 it is in measure and
number and weight, 10 it is with justice and mercy. 11 Neither can any man say to Him, Why dost thou so? 12 For if He assigns to His
creatures the end that He wills, and chooses the means which seem good to Him to lead them to it, the end He assigns them must be good
and wise, nor can He direct them towards their end other than by good and wise means. Therefore do not become foolish 13 the Apostle
tells us, but understand what the will of the Lord is, so that doing it you may receive the promise, 14 that is to say eternal happiness, for it
is written the world with its lust is passing away, but he who does the will of God abides forever. 15 God Controls All Events, Whether Good or Bad
Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything
with the exception of sin. 'Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives' is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and
Doctors of the Church, 'and God intervenes everywhere.' I am the Lord, He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet
Isaias, and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. 16 It is I who
bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them, He said to Moses. 17 'The Lord killeth and maketh alive, it is written in
the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh
8 Prov. 3:19
9 Wis. 12:13
10 id. 11:20
11 id. 12:15; 16:1
12 Eccles. 8:4
13 Eph. 5:7
14 Heb. 10:36
15 1 John 2:17
16 1s. 45:6-7
17 Deut. 32:39
rich, he humbleth and he exalteth. 18 Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done? 19 asks the prophet
Amos: Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God Solomon proclaims. 20 And so on in numerous other
passages of Scripture. Perhaps you will say that while this is true of certain necessary effects, like sickness, death, cold and heat, and other
accidents due to natural causes which have no liberty of action, the same cannot be said in the case of things that result from the free
will of man. For if, you will object, someone slanders me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me, how can I attribute his conduct to the will
of God who far from wishing me to be treated in such a manner, expressly forbids it? So the blame, you will conclude, can only be laid
on the will of man, on his ignorance or malice. This is the defense behind which we try to shelter from God and excuse our lack of
courage and submission.
It is quite useless for us to try and take advantage of this way of reasoning as an excuse for not surrendering to Providence. God
Himself has refuted it and we must believe on His word that in events of this kind as in all others, nothing occurs except by His order and
permission.
Let us see what the Scriptures say. He wishes to punish the murder and adultery committed by David and He expresses Himself
as follows by the mouth of the prophet Nathan: Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in my sight? Thou hast
killed Urias the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of
Ammon. Therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised me, and host taken the wife of Urias the
Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and
give them to thy neighbor and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing in the
sight of all all Israel, and in the sight of the sun.
21 18 1 Kings 2:6-7
19 Amos 3:6
20 Ecclus. 11:14
21 2 Kings 12:9-12
Later when the Jews by their iniquities had grievously offended Him and provoked His wrath, He says: The Assyrian is the
rod and the staff of My anger, and My indignation is in his hands. I will send him to the deceitful nation, and I will give him charge
against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
22 Could God more openly declare Himself to be responsible for the evils that Absalom caused his father and the King of Assyria the
Jews? It would be easy to find other instances but these are enough. Let us conclude then with St. Augustine: "All that happens to us in
this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God, by the disposal of Providence,
by His orders and under His guidance; and if from the frailty of our understanding we cannot grasp the reason for some event, let us
attribute it to divine Providence, show Him respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it us without
cause."
Replying to the murmurs and complaints of the Jews who attributed their captivity and sufferings to misfortune and causes
other than the will of God, the prophet Jeremias says to them: Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord
commandeth it not? Do not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest? Why doth a living man murmur, a man
suffering for his sins? Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the
heavens, saying, We have done wickedly and provoked thee to wrath; therefore thou art inexorable. 23 Are not these words clear enough?
We should take them to heart for our own good. Let us be careful to attribute everything to the will of God andbelieve that all is guided by
His paternal hand.
22 Is. 10:5-6
23 Lam. 3:37-42
How Can God Will or Allow Evil?
However, you will perhaps now say, there is sinfulness in all these actions. How then can God will them and take part in them if
He is all-holy and can have nothing in common with sin? God indeed is not and cannot be the author of sin. But it must
be remembered that in every sin there are two parts to be distinguished, one natural and the other moral. Thus, in the action of
the man you think you have a grievance against there is, for example, the movement of the arm that strikes you or the tongue
that offends you, and the movement of the will that turns aside from right reason and the law of God. The physical action of the arm or the
tongue, like all natural things, is quite good in itself and there is nothing to prevent its being produced with and by God's
cooperation. What is evil, what God could not cooperate with, is the sinful intention which the will of man contributes to the act.
When a man walks with a crippled leg the movement he makes comes both from the soul and the leg, but the defect which
causes him to walk badly is only in the leg. In the same way all evil actions must be attributed to God and to man in so far as they are
natural, physical acts, but they can be attributed only to the will of man in so far as they are sinful and blameworthy.
If then someone strikes you or slanders you, as the movement of the arm or tongue is in no way a sin, God can very well be, and
actually is, the author of it; for existence and movement in man not less than in any other creature proceed not from himself but from
God, who acts in him and by him. For in Him says St. Paul, we live and move and have our being. 24 As for the malice of the intention, it
proceeds entirely from man and in it alone is the sinfulness in which God has no share but which He yet permits in order not to interfere
with our freedom of will.
Moreover, when God cooperates with the person who attacks or robs you, He doubtless intends to deprive you of health or goods
because you are making a wrong use of them and they will be harmful to your soul. But He does not intend that the attacker or
robber should take them from you by a sin. That is the part of human malice, not God's design.
24 Acts 17:28
An example may make the matter clearer. A criminal is condemned to death by fair trial. But the executioner happens to be a
personal enemy of his, and instead of carrying out the judge's sentence as a duty, he does so in a spirit of hate and revenge.
Obviously the judge has no share in the executioner's sin. The will and intention of the judge is not that this sin should he committed,
but that justice should take its course and the criminal be punished. In the same way God has no share at all in the wickedness of
the man who strikes or robs you. That is something particular to the man himself. God, as we have said, wishes to make you see your own
faults, to humble you, deprive you of what you possess, in order to free you from vice and lead you to virtue; but this good and merciful
design, which He could carry out in numerous other ways without any sin being involved, has nothing in common with the sin of the
man who acts as His instrument. And in fact it is not this man's evil intention or sin that causes you to suffer, humiliates or impoverishes
you, but the loss of your well being, your good name or your possessions. The sin harms only the person who is guilty of it. This is
the way we ought to separate the good from the evil in events of this kind, and distinguish what God operates through men from what
men add to the act by their own will.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
St. Gregory sets the same truth before us in another light. A doctor, he says orders leeches to be applied. While these small
creatures are drawing blood from the patient their only aim is to gorge themselves and suck up as much of it as they can. The doctor's
only intention is to have the impure blood drawn from the patient and to cure him in this manner. There is therefore no relation
between the insatiable greed of the leeches and the intelligent purpose of the doctor in using them. The patient himself does not
protest at their use. He does not regard the leeches as evildoers.
Rather he tries to overcome the repugnance the sight of their ugliness causes and help them in their action, in the knowledge that
the doctor has judged it useful for his health. God makes use of men as the doctor does of leeches. Neither should we then stop to
consider the evilness of those to whom God gives power to act on us or be grieved at their wicked intentions, and we should keep
ourselves from feelings of aversion towards them. Whatever their particular views may be, in regard to us they are only instruments of
well being, guided by the hand of an all-good, all-wise, all-powerful God who will allow them to act on us only in so far as is of use to us.
It is in our interest to welcome instead of trying to repel their assaults, as in very truth they come from God. And it is the same with
all creatures of whatever kind. Not one of them could act upon us unless the power were given it from above.
This truth has always been familiar to the minds of those truly enlightened by God. We have a celebrated example in Job. He
loses his children and his possessions; he falls from the height of fortune to the depths of poverty. And he says The Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 25 "Note" observes St. Augustine "Job
does not say 'The Lord gave and the devil hath taken away' but says, wise that he is, 'The Lord gave me my children and my possessions,
and it is He who has taken them away; it has been done as it has pleased the Lord."
The example of Joseph is no less instructive. His brothers had old him into slavery from malice and for a wicked purpose, and
nevertheless the holy patriarch insists on attributing all to God's providence. God sent me, he says, before you into Egypt 26 to save
life. . . . God sent me before you to preserve a remnant for you in the land, and to deliver you in striking way. Not you but God sent me
here, and made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over the land of Egypt. Let us now listen to Our Savior himself who
came down from heaven to teach us by His word and example. In an excess of zeal Peter tries to turn Him aside from His purpose of submitting to His
passion and prevent the soldiers laying their hands on Him. But Jesus said to him: Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? 27
In fact He attributed the suffering and ignominy of His passion not to the Jews who accused him, not to Judas who betrayed Him, nor to
Pilate who condemned Him, nor to the soldiers who ill-treated and
25 Job 1:21
26 Gen. 45:5-8
27 John 18:11
crucified Him, nor to the devil who incited them all, though they were the immediate causes of His sufferings, but to God, and to God
not considered as a strict judge but as a loving and beloved Father. Let us never then attribute our losses, our disappointments,
our afflictions, our humiliations to the devil or to men, but to God as their real source. "To act otherwise" says St. Dorothy, "would be to
do the same as a dog who vents his anger on the stone instead of putting the blame on the hand that threw it at him." So let us be
careful not to say 'So-and-so is the cause of my misfortune.' Your misfortunes are the work not of this or that person but of God. And
what should give you reassurance is that God, the sovereign good, is guided in all His actions by His most profound wisdom for holy and
supernatural purposes.
God Does Everything With Supreme Wisdom All wisdom comes from the Lord God we find in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, and with him
it remains forever, and is before all time . . . and he has poured her forth upon all his works. 28 How manifold are your works, O Lord!
exclaims the Psalmist, In wisdom thou hast wrought them all. 29 It could not be otherwise, for God, being infinite wisdom and acting by
Himself, cannot act except in an infinitely wise manner.
For this reason many of the Doctors of the Church hold that, having regard to the circumstances, His works are so perfect that
they could not be more so, and so good that they could not be better. 'We ought then' says St. Basil, 'to ponder well on this thought, that
we are the work of a good Workman, and that He dispenses and distributes to us all things great and small with the wisest
providence, so that there is nothing had, nothing that could even be conceived better.' The works of the Lord are great the Psalmist again
says, exquisite in all their delights. 30 His wisdom is especially shown in the right proportion between the means He employs and the end
He has in view. She reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well. 31 She (Wisdom) governs men with admirable order, she
leads them to their happiness mightily but without violence or constraint, with sweetness and not only with sweetness, but still
more with circumspection.
But though you have might at your disposal, says the Sage,you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us. 32
You are endowed with an infinite strength that nothing can resist but with us you do not use the absolute power of your sovereign
authority. You treat us with extreme condescension and adapting yourself to the weakness of nature, design to place each one of us in
the best and most suitable situation for working out our salvation. You dispose of us with great favor as persons who at your living
image and of noble origin and who, because of their condition, are
28 Eccles. 1:1,8
29 Ps. 103:24
30 Ps. 110:2
31 Wis. 8:1
32 Wis. 12:18
not to be ordered in the voice of a master as if they were slaves, but with care and consideration. You treat us with the same
circumspection as one handles a vase of precious crystal or fragile pottery for fear of breaking it. When it is necessary for our good for
you to afflict us or send us some illness or make us suffer some loss or pain, you always do so with a certain respect and a kind of
deference. As a surgeon who has to operate on a person of importance takes extra care to cause him as little suffering as
possible and only what is strictly necessary for his recovery, or as a father unwillingly punishes a son he loves dearly only because he is
obliged to do so for his son's good, so God treats us as noble beings for whom He has the highest regard, or as beloved children whom he
chastises because he loves them. 33 Trials and Punishments Are Blessings From God Looking, St. Paul tells us, towards the author and finisher of
faith, Jesus (the only begotten and beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased) .... Consider then Him Who endured such opposition
from sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. For you have not yet resisted unto blood (as He did) in the
struggle with sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation that is addressed to you as sons, saying, My son, neglect not the discipline of
the Lord, neither be thou weary when thou art rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves He chastises, and He scourges every son whom
He receives. Continue under discipline, for God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not correct? 34
In short, the purpose for which God acts is a high and holy one, His own glory and the good of His creatures. Infinitely good -- Goodness
itself -- He seeks to make them all perfect by drawing them towards Him and making them sharers in His divinity as far as they are
capable. But because of the close ties He has established with us by the union of our nature with His in the person of his Son, we in a still
more special manner are the object of His benevolence and tender care. A glove is not more fitted to a hand or a sword to a scabbard
than what He does and ordains in us and for us is suited to our
33 Apoc. 3:19
34 Heb. 12:2-7
strength and capabilities, so that everything may serve to our advantage and perfection if we but cooperate with the designs of his
providence. Our Trials Are Never Greater Than Our Strength to Bear Them Do not let ourselves be troubled when we are sometimes
beset by adversity, for we know that it is meant for our spiritual welfare and carefully proportioned to our needs, and that a limit has
been set to it by the wisdom of the same God who has set a bound to the ocean. Sometimes it might seem as if the sea in its fury would
overflow and flood the land, but it respects the limits of its shore and its waves break upon the yielding sand. There is no tribulation or
temptation whose limits God has not appointed so as to serve not for our destruction but for our salvation. God is faithful says the Apostle,
and will not permit you to be tempted (or afflicted) beyond your strength, 35 but it is necessary for you to be so, since through many
tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God 36 in the steps of our Redeemer who said of Himself, Did not the Christ have to suffer all
these things before entering into His glory? 37 If you refused to accept these tribulations you would be acting against your best
interests. You are like a block of marble in the hands of the sculptor. The sculptor must chip, hew and smooth it to make it into a statue
that is a work of art. God wishes to make us the living image of Himself. All we need to think of is to keep still in His hands while He
works on us, and we can rest assured that the chisel will never strike the slightest blow that is not needed for His purposes and our
sanctification; for, as St. Paul says, the will of God is your sanctification. 38
35 1 Cor. 10:13
36 Acts. 14:21
37 Luke 24:26
38 I Thessalonians 4:3