Reach out to the Good in the Freedom of Love
Evil as a thing in itself does not exist. It has no being, if we think of it as completely separated from the highest Good. Nothing exists that does not participate in the Good. Evil is only a lack of Goodness, and nothing exists that is completely lacking in Goodness.
Divine Providence affects every being; there is no being that is outside its influence. When some evil happens, Providence kindly makes use of it for the benefit of the sinner or of other people, individually or as a community.
We cannot agree with the one who says that Providence ought to compel us to be good even against our will. What sort of Providence would it be that destroyed our human nature? Its function is rather to protect the nature of every being. Therefore, when dealing with beings that have been given free will, it acts taking account of this free will of theirs.
Evil is weakness, impotence, lack of knowledge, ignorance of what it is impossible not to know, insufficient faith, not enough desire for or doing of what is good.
The objection could be raised that weakness deserves forgiveness rather than punishment. If humanity had not been given any strength, that objection would be justified. But according to Scripture the highest Good gives each person the strength that is needed. Consequently, we have no excuse for neglecting the good qualities we have received from him who is Goodness itself.
This Good is the beginning and the end of all things. It is involved in all existence. It creates from nothingness. It is the cause of all good without being the cause of evil. It is Providence and perfect Goodness. It transcends being and not-being. And it has the ability to turn evil into good.
We ought to reach out to it with all our might, with all the desire of love.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
On the Divine Names 4, 33ff. (PG3, 812)
Choosing Life
God says, “I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
“Choose life.” That’s God’s call for us, and there is not a moment in which we do not have to make that choice. Life and death are always before us. In our imaginations, our thoughts, our words, our gestures, our actions … even in our nonactions. This choice for life starts in a deep interior place. Underneath very life-affirming behavior I can still harbor death-thoughts and death-feelings. The most important question is not “Do I kill?” but “Do I carry a blessing in my heart or a curse?” The bullet that kills is only the final instrument of the hatred that began in the heart long before the gun was picked up.
~From Henri J.M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith
