God's Redeeming Grace
AMDG I, a would-be-theologian and aspiring intellectual who is more intuitively a gardener and a daydreamer, to you, my fellow dreamer and student. Grace and peace. Since January 1 st , I have been following Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Catechism in a Year program. Paragraphs 309-314, “Providence and the Scandal of Evil,” were particularly good. (You can find the episode here or read just the subject text here ). The authors don’t address the whole topic of evil, and in fact acknowledge that “…no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question…” Yet in the context of God as a good—or the good —Parent, Creator, and Provider, the authors explain how God does not merely stand by and allow us to suffer in the consequences of all our unrighteous free choices, but in God’s providence God often raises good out of the evil. About the same time Catechism in a Year made it to this section, dark news about Jean Vanier swept through the church. Strong...