- Feb 5, 2002
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The logical follow-up to my commentary last Friday on Tragi-comic news is a more serious consideration of the intractability of evil. For if we are honest, we understand that the sheer weight of evil in this world cannot be thrown off by human means. We will beat our heads against the proverbial wall of evil only to find that, when we have finished, we have not managed to visibly reduce the amount of evil in the world. At best we can suggest to ourselves that there would have been even more evil if we hadn’t tried.
This stark reality is actually acknowledged by Christianity, in that the weeds and the wheat are permitted to grow until the time for harvesting. Or, as Jesus Christ explained: “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The immediate context for this assurance was the apparent forthcoming triumph of evil in our Lord’s passion and death, when even His disciples were about to be scattered. The security in all this is that neither Christ nor His disciples are alone, for in every trial the Father is with Him and with them (Jn 16:32; Mt 10:20).
But it is still hard, which is why, on the same occasion, Our Lord said: “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace.” A little earlier he had made the same point: “My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27).
Continued below.
www.catholicculture.org
This stark reality is actually acknowledged by Christianity, in that the weeds and the wheat are permitted to grow until the time for harvesting. Or, as Jesus Christ explained: “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The immediate context for this assurance was the apparent forthcoming triumph of evil in our Lord’s passion and death, when even His disciples were about to be scattered. The security in all this is that neither Christ nor His disciples are alone, for in every trial the Father is with Him and with them (Jn 16:32; Mt 10:20).
But it is still hard, which is why, on the same occasion, Our Lord said: “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace.” A little earlier he had made the same point: “My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27).
Continued below.
Exhausted by intractable evil? Our Lord has already won.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
www.catholicculture.org
