Catholic Teaching on Divine Providence

God’s Divine Providence was at work, as it always is everywhere, here in our diocese recently.  And, as Anglican poet and hymn writer William Cowper famously wrote, God works in mysterious ways.

On the third Sunday of ordinary time, our local chapter of Catholic Action hosted the diocesan March for Peace. With over 800 children expected, the planning began months in advance. You can imagine all the challenges associated with organizing a full day of activities for children and their parents.  The highlight of the day would be Mass celebrated by a bishop at the end of the March.

The volunteers  began arriving at 7 am, as planned,  and were making their way to the park to set up.  In what can only be described as a freak occurrence, our town was suddenly hit with, not one, but two earthquakes.

Earth-moving circumstances

Our town is not on any major fault line, so this incident was entirely unexpected. And the quakes were relatively minor (at least by California standards), registering at 2.5 and 2.8.  Happily, there were no reported injuries or damages. However, the town’s officials responsible for safety, in an abundance of caution, requested that our cathedral be closed.

This posed a problem because the cathedral was to be the destination of the march and the site of the closing Mass.  So we scurried about to find an alternative solution. Fortunately, the owners of a nearby covered soccer field granted permission to use their facility, and the children were content to march a short distance and then play there after Mass. It was a true testament to the hardworking team of priests and parishioners.

The Real Question

I suppose the cliché applies here: “all’s well that ends well.” However, it is fair to ask the question: but why? If God is all-powerful, and all-knowing, why didn’t He do something? Why didn’t He prevent the freak earthquakes?

The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” (CCC, Part 1, Section Two, “The Creator,” #302), reminds us that “the universe was created ‘in a state of journeying’ (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call ‘divine providence’ the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection.”

The word providence itself come from the Latin: pro – ahead, and videre – to see. God sees ahead of us, or, rather, in His eternity He sees all things as present and orders all accordingly.

The CCC contains a very profound line about providence. In #303, we are told “the witness of Scripture is unanimous that the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history.”

When I stop to consider these words, I am always struck by how personal and all-encompassing God’s providence is. His concern extends not just to the big events in world history, but also to my life, in all its little details. His concern is concrete and immediate; it is not just a pious thought or some abstract consideration. It is real, here and now, working on my life and circumstances.

Some Thoughts from St. Thomas Aquinas

The great doctor of the Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas, has many beautiful insights regarding Divine Providence scattered through his writings. Two that are particularly interesting are the following.

In a writing about truth, Aquinas explains why God’s providence can seem strange to us (for instance, the use of earthquakes in a place that rarely has them).

“It is because we do not know His reasons that we think many things happen without order or plan. We are like a man who enters a carpenter shop and thinks that there is a useless multiplication of tools because he does not know how each one is used; but one who knows the trade will see that this number of tools exists for a very good reason” (De Veritate, q. 5, a. 5, ad 6).

There is something beautiful about Aquinas’ simple analogy. We don’t understand how God makes use of all the different happenings and events in the world, not because there’s something wrong with God, but rather because everything God does has a specific purpose for which His instruments are perfectly suited.

Random vs. Orderly

The second text reminds us that, even when things seem haphazard or random to us, to God everything is perfectly clear and in order.

“So far then as an effect escapes the order of a particular cause, it is said to be casual or fortuitous in respect to that cause; but if we regard the universal cause, outside whose range no effect can happen, it is said to be foreseen. Thus, for instance, the meeting of two servants, although to them it appears a chance circumstance, has been fully foreseen by their master, who has purposely sent them to meet at the one place, in such a way that the one knows not about the other” (Summa Theologiae, q. 22, a. 2, ad 1).

To the two servants, sent to the same market without the other knowing about it, their meeting was random or a chance encounter. To God, however, that meeting was directly intended.

The question arises: but what about evil? If God is so good and so powerful, why doesn’t He prevent evil from taking place? It is no coincidence that, immediately after introducing the notion of God’s providence, the CCC starts a discussion regarding the problem of evil (309-313).

Providence and Evil

“If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil [Italics added].

“But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world “in a state of journeying” towards its ultimate perfection . . .

“Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it . . .

[Only Time will Tell]

“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 . . .

We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him.” The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth:

“St. Catherine of Siena said to “those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them”: “Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.”

“St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: “Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best.”

There is no quick answer to the problem of evil. It is, and will remain, a mystery. However, with our faith in God, we trust that God knows what He is doing, and that everything is ordained to help us get to heaven.

Our Reaction

So, aside from trusting God, what should our reaction be to all these circumstances that arise in God’s providence? Pope Saint John Paul II offers the following advice: “What should be our attitude to God’s providential and far-sighted action? We certainly should not wait passively for what he sends us, but cooperate with him in bringing to completion the work he has begun in us” (General Audience, par. 3, March 24, 1999).

If all things are meant to bring us to holiness and wholeness, then we shouldn’t get angry and frustrated with God’s providence: we should work with it, and try to grow in holiness as He desires.

Fortunately, that was our experience after the March for Peace and all its complications. Many wanted to celebrate in the church, in order to show the whole diocese the “house” that we have there. However, as many realized afterwards, reflecting on the day’s events and challenges, there are things that are more important than simply a “house.”

One of those “things” is the family, and it was as a family that everyone came together to make the March, the Mass, and all the other details work out. It seems that the tool God wanted to use to help us realize this wasn’t a hammer or a shove, but rather two earthquakes.