Omnipresence

[TradCatholic12]

I’ve been reading a book on Saints. It says that God is everywhere and in everything by his Presence, Essence, Power. But how could God be in something that is used for evil? I realize God is not literally in something…that would be heresy. To quote a catechism

God is everywhere:

first, by His power, inasmuch as all things are under His dominion;
second, by His Presence. inasmuch as nothing is hidden from Him;
third, by His essence, inasmuch as He is in all things as the cause of their being.

How could God be cause of of being and sustain something evil?

 

[cpayne]

God is causally present in all things that truly exist, inasmuch as He is the ground of existence: “I Am that I Am” (from Bible). In other words, the existence of everything is derived from His existence. Even things misused for evil purposes, or evil people, resemble God at least in the sense that they exist. In that sense, nothing that truly exists can be completely, absolutely evil; complete, absolute evil would be the complete negation of existence and thus could not exist. “All things are good insofar as they [truly] exist.” (from Aquinas)

 

[TradCatholic12]

Thanks that sort of makes sense…thanks again.

 

[cpayne]

I really did laugh when I read your response, mainly because I’m a teacher but not always too clear: “That sort of makes sense”–I get that a lot from people.

 

[TradCatholic12]

I didn’t mean to say you’re a bad teacher…I just had to think about what you said a bit. I also came up with something. God creates out of nothing so God creates the water, the earth, and everything in it. We use His creations to make things. The things we make (except churches, statues) do not represent God, only the things He creates represents Himself by way of being their Creator. When man makes things for evil, we misuse His creations. The object we create isn’t one of God’s creations, although we use His creations to make our objects. The object can be used for evil (an atomic bomb) but it is made out of God’s creations (metal for example) the metal isn’t evil, but the bomb is. To create is different than to make.

 

[cpayne]

That’s right. Everything God creates is good, but can be misused or perverted.

(I didn’t take any offense, by the way. It really did make me chuckle.)