Thursday, October 08, 2009

Providence does not give us Stones, Scorpions and Snakes


What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”


At the heart of the Christian world view is Providence is good, is on our side. I always start my converts off by by talking about Aquinas' demonstrations for the existence of God, I love the way he ends each one of them by saying, "And this is what men call God". Thomas is really talking about Providence, the Power, the Being that exists of itself. The Power that is outside of time and space, and yet provided both match and detonator to begin Creation, this Power is force that brings Something out of nothing and directs this Something. It is this Power which establishes the laws of the Universe, it is the source of the laws of gravity, of attraction and repulsion, of decay and evolution.

I start converts off from this point because conversion is essentially about changing peoples "world view". We believe "Providence" is good. That God the source and origin of everything does not give us stones, scorpians and snakes, that human goodness is but a reflection of God's goodness.

Our view of the natural order is that behind every thing is goodness, love, co-operation. Providence is on our side.

We don't believe simply in the Darwinian survival of the fittest, or nature being red in tooth and claw, or the Dawkinsite "selfish genes"nor do we believe in Marx's constant battle between classes, between capital and labour, men and women, gay and straight. The current secular world views are incredibly pessimistic, they stop short of the ultimate questions which physicists must eventually ask along with theologians: How and Why? It was these question which led Anthony Flew from atheism to some sort of theism.

The Christian world view is that ultimately God sent his Son into the World not to condemn it but to save it. The Christian view is a deeply positive one.

6 comments:

On the side of the angels said...

sorry father, have plagiarised your comments for an authentic representation of the faith on Holy Smoke - had I merely inserted a link to it those who need to hear it wouldn't have read it. Had I asked beforehand people might have presumed ulterior motives. Sorry but the intent was to reflect a little more light of Truth to a wider readership.

Jackie Parkes MJ said...

scorpiOn

Patricius said...

"God saw all that He had made and indeed it was very good."!

Fr Ray Blake said...

OTSOTA
Quote what you like, this ain't ICEL

Michael Petek said...

My cat, who passed away in June at the age of twenty-one, occasionally used to come indoors red in tooth and claw, at the expense of some unfortunate bird or tree frog.

Sometimes, nature is pretty brutal. So can be the strong in the economy and in society. Such as bankers.

This, I take it, demonstrates that divine Providence can be one thing, and human deviations from it can be another.

Jackie Parkes MJ said...

You might like my latest post Fr Ray!

The Lord’s descent into the underworld

At Matins/the Office of Readings on Holy Saturday the Church gives us this 'ancient homily', I find it incredibly moving, it is abou...