Dear people of Grace,
If you’ve read the local paper this week, it seemed to convey one violent story after another. Assaults, shootings, an unidentified body on a West End beach. It’s enough to make us question what this world is coming to…
But seriously, what are we to do about this apparent evil? Is this world, indeed, a sinful, evil place? How are we to reconcile Jesus’ saving action with the continued presence of evil?
To respond to this, let’s back up…to the very beginning.
If we read the creation story, we quickly see that, at the end of every day of creation, God reflects that “it was good.” When all creation was complete, including humanity, “God saw everything that he had made and, indeed, it was very good” (Gen 1:31).
In spite of everything that happens after this event in the creation story, there are two essential theological building blocks that we can glean:
- God created everything. There is nothing in the cosmos that does not have God’s fingerprints on it; nothing exists outside of God.
- Everything that God created was good; fundamentally, absolutely, good.
Placing these two theological truths together, Saint Augustine of Hippo concluded that evil must be non-substantial (having no substance). Essentially, evil does not exist (because all things that exist are created by God, and God can create nothing which is not good).
If you’re left scratching your head at this point, don’t worry. You’re in good company!
This argument gets pretty deep, but on a very basic level, Augustine was suggesting that substances – things – cannot in themselves be evil. They can do terrible, evil things, but, Augustine supposes, even Satan himself is not substantively evil, because he was once created by God. He has chosen an evil path, but that does not make him – his being – evil.
You may still be scratching your head at this point, but this theological truth gives me hope. It provides an answer for me as to how Jesus’ sacrifice of himself, for the sins of the whole world, shines through even in our darkest times.
Because if people are not fundamentally evil, then there is hope. People make bad decisions. They hurt other people, for any number of reasons. But they, themselves, are not evil. They are redeemable. They are still worthy of love, of compassion, of benevolence.
Bryan Stevenson, lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, speaks of how he earnestly believes that, even the death-row inmates he counsels, are more than the worst things they have ever done. They are not, fundamentally, evil.
So, do not be disheartened by gloomy news reports. The Lord our God is firmly in control of this world. Jesus Christ did not die in vain. All shall be redeemed. All shall be made well. The Lord will, some day, look down on his creation and see that it is very good.
As faithful Christians, ours is the job of trying to make our small piece of the kingdom as “good” as possible. Ours is the job of expanding that goodness throughout our community, throughout our acquaintances, throughout our workplaces and associations; to sow the seeds of the kingdom, to show the world the light, and goodness, of Christ.
Evil can never win. Because, fundamentally, evil does not exist.
Only God creates. Only God reigns. And God is love. And goodness.
Blessings and peace,
Fr. Nick+