Expert: Griff Ruby - 6/21/2006

Question
What is the Catholic teaching concerning all the bad things that are going on in the world? Are we to believe that everything happens for a reason and that it is all part of Gods master plan?  If this was the case, it would seem to say that there is  such a thing as fate, which seems to go against the notion of free will.  However, believing that there is a reason for everything is comforting in times of hardship.  What do you think, and does the Church say anything about it?

Answer
The evil that exists in the world is because of sin.  So easily we humans seem to think of sin as some minor concern (excepting of course the obviously big sins of murder and suchlike), yet as in Chaos theory in which tyhe flap of a butterfly's wing can make the difference between a hurricane or not, our own sins (and also the sins of certain fallen angels) are the cause of all the evils in the world and out of it.
Evil was never a part of God's "master plan," but rather that the "plan" was about creating a real world in which people and other things living and not can all interact and make choices.  Without such a creation evil could still exist but obviously its scope would be far more limited.
For there are two parts of the question of why evil things can happen.  One part of the answer (easily found) is that we have been created with freedom of choice, that we can choose to love God or choose not to.  Love which is not freely chosen is love without meaning.  i know there have been those who have fantisized about what it would be like to create a perfect robot being that looks just like a human being, and it would always be and do whatever we like, but such a thing would be pointless once attained.  You would know that it loves you because it was programmed to love you, and not because of any loveableness on your part.
The second part (much more rarely heard) has to do with the question of "If someone else chooses evil, why do I have to suffer for it?"  For this, one could posit a world in which each of us exists in a little cell with only ourselves and God, and we can choose to get along with God or not, but no one else would even know of us or our choice.  But in such a world, just as no one can hurt anyone else, neither can anyone help anyone else either.  How can you give a gift and see the gratitude therefor if you have no access to anyone else?  But again the ability to help includes the ability to harm.
So, all of this is why God created the world as He did, His true "master plan," where we are free to make choices and also free to affect others with our choices.  That some of us have made bad choices we have only ourselves to blame for it.
As to the free will question, God does not force our choices (though there are at times promptings from the Holy Ghost, which we remain free to act upon or ignore), but rather He simply knows what our choices are going to be.  Just as a natural parent knows what his children will say to an invitation to go to Disneyland, or all about such things the child may not have faced as yet, such as school, puberty, college, making and managing money and so forth, God knows all things that are to happen to us and what choices we would (and will) make.  But the choices remain ours, not His, even as the parent does not have to force his children to say "Yea!" to the idea of going to Disneyland.  The fundamental problem with "fate" is that it denies us our choices, and only serves to excuse us from responsibility for our actions.  It's all just another way of saying "Don't blame me, the devil made me do it!"
Finally, not all hardships are evils.  At times we need such hardships to grow our character or be reminded of our own sins, and such (despite their inconvenience at the time) are true blessings from God.  For our character growth is paramount with God, who seeks to fit us for Heaven.  For we do not suddenly become different people once we die, rather we remain who we already really are, and if that is not something fitted for Heaven, then that is a problem.  God does everything He can to try to fit us each and all for Heaven, but we ourselves must welcome that help (Grace) and cooperate with it, and that too is our own choice.