Free Will

by David Lins  |  10/02/2022  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

Eight days ago (as I write this), our parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults began another year, and will culminate at the Easter Vigil before concluding a few weeks later.

It meets almost every Wednesday in the Parish Library from 6:30PM-8:00PM and is for any adult who is unbaptized, baptized in another faith and interested in Catholicism, adult Catholic who never completed the sacraments of initiation, AND any “cradle Catholic” who wants to audit the class in order to learn more about the Faith.

In only its second week, we already dove into the question of why God doesn’t answer every prayer. And this isn’t a new question.

The Old Testament book of Habakkuk begins, “How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! ...but you do not intervene.”

There are a few ways to respond to this question, none of them entirely adequate in of themselves, but valuable nevertheless. Here is one…

It is important to remember that God created all things. It is equally important to remember the evil one creates nothing. He is an angel who rebelled. Angels do not create. They are created. Okay… this might just reinforce confusion over why evil exists. If God makes everything and there is evil, then… The equation seems pretty simple. But there is one variable that “logic” forgets: free will.

Free will—when used improperly—warps something that could have been good. And the evil one is perhaps the prime example. Our Faith teaches that angels were created for good, but that wasn’t enough for Lucifer so he rebelled in a grab for power. It didn’t turn out so great for him (it never does) and now he is the embodiment of “misery loves company.” He tries to warp good gifts and difficult opportunities to cling to God into perverted expressions of talent, and bitterness toward circumstance.

With perfect faith, gifts and talents are used for, and given back to God. Hardship and unanswered prayer is met with trust. Suffering is united to the suffering of Christ. And death is understood as entry to an eternal reward after a life well lived. Is this easy? No. But it is easier than the alternative.

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