Trustful surrender to God's will - I'm confused about the death of a child and saving it from evil?

[pepipop]

I am currently reading the above and am slightly confused by this statement. Whilst, I totally accept everything is under God’s will, I do not understand the underlined words. If God willed a child’s death so as to rescue it from some great evil, then is God not acting against the free will of this child through God’s knowledge of the child’s future life/actions and stopping the child from making such decisions?

I can see how sickness/loss of money and being separated from a potentially wrong spouse being God’s intervention, as they do not depend on the actual death and deliverance of a soul from a future event - i.e. in the example of the child.

Let us imagine our confusion when we appear before God and understand the reasons why He sent us the crosses we accept so unwillingly. The death of a child will then be seen as its rescue from some great evil had it lived, separation from the woman you love the means of saving you from an unhappy marriage, a severe illness the reason for many years of life afterwards, loss of money the means of saving your soul from eternal loss. So what are we worried about?

olrl.org/snt_docs/trustful/

 

[Verbum]

Hi Pep,

The author is trying to show that everything bad that happens is, in God’s purpose, all to the good.

But ln saying that a child’s death might happen to protect that child from some future evil is baloney. God knows everything from all eternity. If he did not wish for something to happen, he would not allow the child to be born in the fist place.

God has a purpose for everyone of us. Whether we die early or late fits that purpose. We cannot always perceive it, but lt is there : God can work good out of evil.
Verbum

 

[pepipop]

Hi Pep,

The author is trying to show that everything bad that happens is, in God’s purpose, all to the good.

But ln saying that a child’s death might happen to protect that child from some future evil is baloney. God knows everything from all eternity. If he did not wish for something to happen, he would not allow the child to be born in the fist place.

God has a purpose for everyone of us. Whether we die early or late fits that purpose. We cannot always perceive it, but lt is there : God can work good out of evil.
Verbum

Thanks for responding, Verbum, I find the book very informative and comforting.

So you believe that this statement, by the author, was in error? I must admit to having the same reasoning several months ago, i.e. that babies deaths were for this reason but after reading other CAF threads realised this could not possibly be, as it would interfere with the child’s ‘free will’ and his/her trials on earth. It’s disconcerting when reading such an informative and helpful book that something comes across as ‘not right’, as it unfortunately makes you question the rest of the writings, that are so informative and helpful!

 

[bogeydogg]

Thanks for responding, Verbum, I find the book very informative and comforting.

So you believe that this statement, by the author, was in error? I must admit to having the same reasoning several months ago, i.e. that babies deaths were for this reason but after reading other CAF threads realised this could not possibly be, as it would interfere with the child’s ‘free will’ and his/her trials on earth. It’s disconcerting when reading such an informative and helpful book that something comes across as ‘not right’, as it unfortunately makes you question the rest of the writings, that are so informative and helpful!

I would say that we make entirely too much out of free will. Yes God gives us free will, but He also rules over heaven and Earth. As the Catechism teaches;

303 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. The sacred books powerfully affirm God’s absolute sovereignty over the course of events: “Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases.”162 And so it is with Christ, “who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.”163 As the book of Proverbs states: “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.”164 (269)
304 And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a “primitive mode of speech,” but a profound way of recalling God’s primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the world,165 and so of educating his people to trust in him. The prayer of the Psalms is the great school of this trust.166 (2568)
305 Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children’s smallest needs: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?.’… Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.”167 (2115)

God’s sovereignty extends even over our free will, which is very real, but needs to submit itself to His kind and loving care. After all the soul that refuses to submit to His will by rejecting Christ and rejecting repentance will still find God very much sovereign in the hereafter even though that soul be condemned to flames.

But God’s sovereignty over us is the loving care of a Father who loves us and desires the best for us and so our trusting in His power and will and might is not more than the response of our love to the Father who loves us and gave His Son for us. In light of all He has done, why should we kick up such a fuss about not getting our way in our free will? It is better to baptize our babes, trust in God and His Sacraments and cling to Him to all our days knowing that what He has in store for us beyond this vale of tears is far greater than what we can we can ever imagine.

God Bless