Tag Archives: goodness

The Mystery of Evil

Where does evil come from? If God is all-powerful and created a universe that is very good why does evil exist?

While the possibility of evil was created by God, the initial cause of the actuality of evil is the angelic and the human will. Though He could have created a perfect world with no evil in it, God, in His infinite wisdom and goodness freely willed to create a world in a state of journeying. The Catechism tells us that 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 did go astray and both moral and physical evil entered the world. The first to go astray was the angel Satan whose own fall or original sin of pride preceded that of our first parents.

What is evil? St. Augustine tells us that while evil exists, it is not an essence but rather the absence of an essence. Evil is where good should be but isn’t. Hence, within God’s created universe which is very good there exists this possibility of evil. (more…)

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