What is evil again?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blood_Angel
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Blood_Angel

Guest
Not sure if this is the right place to ask but could I just confirm the exact Catholic belief regarding evil?

From what I’ve gathered, are things are originally good and organically wholesome until they are corrupted by evil?
 
There isn’t an “exact belief” on evil, at least to it’s origins, although all God created was “good” in its origin. Evil is mysterious in a lot of ways. Here is a paragraph from the Catechism:*CCC#385 God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? “I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution”, said St. Augustine, and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For “the mystery of lawlessness” is clarified only in the light of the “mystery of our religion”. The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.*Here are other Catechism references to evil.
 
Blood_Angel said:
Not sure if this is the right place to ask but could I just confirm the exact Catholic belief regarding evil?

From what I’ve gathered, are things are originally good and organically wholesome until they are corrupted by evil?
Click to expand...
Evil is the absence of good; in the same sense that darkness is the absence of light. It’s abstractly “something”, but it’s something by privation.

Evil is not a creation, but a defect. We are all “children of wrath”, or “evil” (by definition) at birth, due to Original Sin. We are lacking a supreme goodness intended for mankind, thus “evil”. Baptism restores us to pristine condition as does the sacrament of Reconciliation (although with the effects of sin remaining to be purged).

Illness is an “evil” because it signifies a physical (or mental) disorder. Physical deformity is an evil, but not in the sense that the one afflicted should be destroyed. The crucifixion was a terrible evil, but God foresaw the redemption of Man through His sacrifice, and so permitted the Romans to destroy His body.

God cannot will evil because evil is the loss of good – and by doing so, God would be willing the loss of Himself. God can permit evil for the sake of a greater good which He foresees, but He is never the direct cause of deficiency.
 
Blood_Angel said:
Not sure if this is the right place to ask but could I just confirm the exact Catholic belief regarding evil?

From what I’ve gathered, are things are originally good and organically wholesome until they are corrupted by evil?
Click to expand...
Natural evil, “evil suffered” is a necessary side effect of good in an autonomous, material world such as our own. What’s good for the lion is bad for the lamb.

Sin, “evil done” is when we fail to be fully human. The basic inclination of all human beings is to seek the good and avoid what is not good, i.e., what is evil. There are no such thing as evil desires, there is only evil disproportion to our desires; human evil, moral evil, lies in sacrificing great things for the sake of trivial things, it lies in the failure to want happiness enough.
 
Evil is a roaring lion, who goes about seeking all those whom he could devour. Rather active i would say. Not passive at all & a definite something, rather than simply a lack of another. Never underrestimate your opponent.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top