Evil is not a random or chance thing that happens to us but is from God

[Therese]

Nothing in our lives is due to chance but whatever happens contrary to our wills, be assured that it is in accordance with the will of God, with His Providence, with the order He has instituted, with the consent He has given and the laws He has established.

- St. Augustine

God things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God.

- Eccli. xi, 14.

Somebody once posted in response to a post that they thought that the evil we experience is a chance thing or something that happens randomly.  I didn't refute the person then, but thought I should do so now.

God is the First Cause of any evil we experience.  Let none of us think that when evil things happen to us they happen merely randomly or by chance.  God's Providence is surely at work in these situations.  If God Himself forms the designs that effect us, He entrusts to secondary causes/agents, at least as a rule, the execution of these designs.  An excelllent book that gets into this is Holy Abandonment by Rt. Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey, O.C.R..


"I am the Lord and there is none other", God says by the mouth of Issais.  "I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil."

- Is.xlv, 5-7.

"Shall there be any evil in the city that the Lord has not done?" asks the Prophet Amos (Am. iii, 6).

Nothing happens independently of God's will.  When my neighbor speaks ill of me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me: all this does not happen independently of God's will.    To try the just, God employs the malice of the demons and the perversity of sinners. (from Holy Abandonment.)

[Therese]

Out losses, our afflictions, our humiliations we must never attribute either to the demon or to men, but exclusively to God as their true source.  Men may be their immediate cause, and that by an inexusable fault on thier part.  God hates the fault, but He wills the trial resulting to us therefrom.

- taken from Holy Abandonment, by Rt. Rev. Dom Vitalis Hehodey, OCR..  This book has an Imprumatur and Nihil Obstat.

[Patricia]

How about if I committed an evil act and then repented about it?  Didn't I go against God's will in the first place?  It is a little confusing.  Or does He permit the evil to happen as He has given me free will to choose between good and evil?

[Therese]

How about if I committed an evil act and then repented about it?  Didn't I go against God's will in the first place?  It is a little confusing.  Or does He permit the evil to happen as He has given me free will to choose between good and evil?

Yes you're right, Patricia, if you committed an evil act you went against God's will, but He permits the evil to happen as He has given you free will to choose between good and evil.

[RachelKH]

i really do not get this.  evil is from God???  i thought He allowed it, that good things could come from it because He can cause results that are not evil, but to tell me evil is from God...this is shaking me.

[Therese]

i really do not get this.  evil is from God???  i thought He allowed it, that good things could come from it because He can cause results that are not evil, but to tell me evil is from God...this is shaking me.

Yes, it's strange to hear but I read it in the book called Holy Abandonment which quoted that evil is from God right out of the Scriptures...the book even has an Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat:  the Nihil Obstat means nothing in the book contradicts Church teaching.

[Therese]

i really do not get this.  evil is from God???  i thought He allowed it, that good things could come from it because He can cause results that are not evil, but to tell me evil is from God...this is shaking me.

I learned from the book Holy Abandonment that the only thing that does not come from God is sin and that sin is the only thing that he does not will.  That is not to say that God does not will that we suffer the occasion of suffering that is brought about by another persons sin though.

[Shin]

i really do not get this.  evil is from God???  i thought He allowed it, that good things could come from it because He can cause results that are not evil, but to tell me evil is from God...this is shaking me.

Yes, it's strange to hear but I read it in the book called Holy Abandonment which quoted that evil is from God right out of the Scriptures...the book even has an Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat:  the Nihil Obstat means nothing in the book contradicts Church teaching.

Holy Abandonment sounds like Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, one of my favorite books. I hope I get a chance to read it someday!

[Bailey2]

I learned from the book Holy Abandonment that the only thing that does not come from God is sin and that sin is the only thing that he does not will.  That is not to say that God does not will that we suffer the occasion of suffering that is brought about by another persons sin though.

So then, what is the evil if all we suffer is due to sin via original sin?

[Shin]

I think we might be able to provide 'Trustful Surrender' for download. I'd love to hear more quotes from 'Holy Abandonment' Therese.

I think Job is a good example of how this all works.

But the way you said it Therese, quoting.. it's helping me clarify things from 'Trustful Surrender' a little more. It's a book I have kept coming back to and thinking about and turning over and over. It's becoming simpler now.

[Therese]

Holy Abandonment sounds like Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, one of my favorite books. I hope I get a chance to read it someday!

I've absolutely loved every book I've read about Divine Providence.  Each one has become one of my all time favorites!  I've read Abandonment to Divine Providence by De Caussade and Uniformity to God's Will by St. Alphonsus.  I've even read Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence.  I've never been helped so much as when I have read these books on Divine Providence. 

Shin, I just returned Holy Abandonment to the Church library from where I borrowed it and now my friend is reading it.  I'll get the book again though, and will quote from it.  It may be a while from now because my friend will have the book for a month.  I highly, highly recommend the book!

[Shin]

Holy Abandonment sounds like Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, one of my favorite books. I hope I get a chance to read it someday!

I've absolutely loved every book I've read about Divine Providence.  Each one has become one of my all time favorites!  I've read Abandonment to Divine Providence by De Caussade and Uniformity to God's Will by St. Alphonsus.  I've even read Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence.  I've never been helped so much as when I have read these books on Divine Providence. 

Shin, I just returned Holy Abandonment to the Church library from where I borrowed it and now my friend is reading it.  I'll get the book again though, and will quote from it.  It may be a while from now because my friend will have the book for a month.  I highly, highly recommend the book!

I've found some excerpts of it online, and another book by Dom Vitalis Lehoday so I'm not completely deprived. I feel it likely that the original English is out of copyright so it may entirely be online someday too.

[Therese]

I learned from the book Holy Abandonment that the only thing that does not come from God is sin and that sin is the only thing that he does not will.  That is not to say that God does not will that we suffer the occasion of suffering that is brought about by another persons sin though.

So then, what is the evil if all we suffer is due to sin via original sin?

I wish I had the book to quote.  The author breaks down a sinful act into two parts. 
1. the sin
2. the occasion the sinful act brings for suffering - willed by God.  (I think that's how he puts the second part.) 

The first aspect of the act (sin) isn't willed by God, the second aspect is.

[Therese]

I've found some excerpts of it online, and another book by Dom Vitalis Lehoday so I'm not completely deprived. I feel it likely that the original English is out of copyright so it may entirely be online someday too.

I'm glad you're not deprived - this is fantastic reading!  It would be excellent if you could provide Trustful Surrender for download like you mentioned in your other post!

[Bailey2]

the occasion the sinful act brings for suffering - willed by God.  (I think that's how he puts the second part.) 

Well that makes sense: sin brings on suffering.  Even Yoda said that!     And that would fit with free will.  God wills free will, free will can bring sin, sin brings suffering.  By default, God wills suffering so as not to contradict free will.

[Therese]

When my neighbor speaks ill of me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me: all this does not happen independently of God's will.    

I condensed 2 sentences into one, so this is not taken verbatum from Holy Abandonment.  It is what the author was saying though.