How God Reacts With The Natural Order
One of the great mysteries of life is trying to understand how God, who is a pure Spirit without physical elements, can have an effect on the physical, animate or inanimate, things of His Creation. We are told that all God has to do to carry out an action is to will that it occur, that this was how the world was created and all within it.
We are unable to understand how God’s Will causes the desires of His Will to be accomplished. We only know that God is omnipotent and that all of His creation, animate and inanimate, except man, in essence cannot but respond in accordance with His Will. God by special dispensation, freed man’s will and that of the angels.
As humans we cannot imagine e.g. how a person or animal could move except by use of the relevant muscles : how speech could be made except by the use of the muscles of speech : how something could be fabricated or constructed except by use of the limb muscles in conjunction with tools and materials.
Yet, if we enquire in more detail, we can see that in the case of human action, we first must will the action. When we will, when we decide upon, an action, the action follows. If I will, if I decide, to get out of bed at a particular time of the morning, it invariably follows that I do indeed get up at that time unless prevented from doing so by some external force. So here in my own human case, merely by willing to take a particular action, I can cause myself to take that action, and the action occurs.
How the energy of the will, of the decision, gets from the spiritual soul, the spiritual will, outside the body, to the material elements within the body - the nervous system and the muscles - is not known and probably not knowable in this life.
I cannot, however, merely by willing, by deciding, that another person should take a particular action, cause that person to take that action : his action-taking mechanism does not respond to my will : my will has control only over my own action-taking mechanism.
In the case of God, the effects of His will are not of course limited to Himself. Everything and everybody, the animate and inanimate, again except for man and the angels, is essentially automatically responsive to God’s will.
Ordinarily, in relation to human persons, God influences our intellect and will, functions residing within our souls and outside our bodies.
God expects man to freely conform his will to the divine will if he is to reach eternal life but at the same time God gives man freedom to do otherwise, to choose eternal life or eternal death.
The angels, with their free will, elected, some to remain loyal, some to rebel, against the divine will. The angels, good and bad, have finished their period of trial : their free will has already been fully and finally exercised and is no longer a relevant factor.
In the case of the virtuous person, with no obstacle present, the human will is in general accord with the divine will and responsive to it.
In the case of a person in sin - in a situation of spiritual death - that person is unable alone to extricate himself from his spiritual death anymore than a person who is physically dead can restore himself to life. He must have help from God and to get it, he must ask for it or someone else must ask for him.
In the case of the person in sin who is not hardened in his attitude to God’s will, God’s wishes - without infringing upon his free will - can act upon, can influence, through grace, the person’s intellect and will, causing him to recognize the evil of sin and producing a spirit of repentance and amendment of life.
In the case of the person hardened in a state of sin, the sinner who has no interest in virtue or in carrying out God’s will, the person whose conscience is dead or dysfunctional, God’s grace cannot act because this man’s free will rejects God’s grace.
However, Masses can be offered or other prayers on the sinner’s behalf can be made by family or friends : this intercession may be sufficient to induce God’s mercy to soften the heart of the sinner over time, to influence his free will to move towards asking God for mercy, towards a spirit of repentance and amendment of life.
We are unable to understand how God’s Will causes the desires of His Will to be accomplished. We only know that God is omnipotent and that all of His creation, animate and inanimate, except man, in essence cannot but respond in accordance with His Will. God by special dispensation, freed man’s will and that of the angels.
As humans we cannot imagine e.g. how a person or animal could move except by use of the relevant muscles : how speech could be made except by the use of the muscles of speech : how something could be fabricated or constructed except by use of the limb muscles in conjunction with tools and materials.
Yet, if we enquire in more detail, we can see that in the case of human action, we first must will the action. When we will, when we decide upon, an action, the action follows. If I will, if I decide, to get out of bed at a particular time of the morning, it invariably follows that I do indeed get up at that time unless prevented from doing so by some external force. So here in my own human case, merely by willing to take a particular action, I can cause myself to take that action, and the action occurs.
How the energy of the will, of the decision, gets from the spiritual soul, the spiritual will, outside the body, to the material elements within the body - the nervous system and the muscles - is not known and probably not knowable in this life.
I cannot, however, merely by willing, by deciding, that another person should take a particular action, cause that person to take that action : his action-taking mechanism does not respond to my will : my will has control only over my own action-taking mechanism.
In the case of God, the effects of His will are not of course limited to Himself. Everything and everybody, the animate and inanimate, again except for man and the angels, is essentially automatically responsive to God’s will.
Ordinarily, in relation to human persons, God influences our intellect and will, functions residing within our souls and outside our bodies.
God expects man to freely conform his will to the divine will if he is to reach eternal life but at the same time God gives man freedom to do otherwise, to choose eternal life or eternal death.
The angels, with their free will, elected, some to remain loyal, some to rebel, against the divine will. The angels, good and bad, have finished their period of trial : their free will has already been fully and finally exercised and is no longer a relevant factor.
In the case of the virtuous person, with no obstacle present, the human will is in general accord with the divine will and responsive to it.
In the case of a person in sin - in a situation of spiritual death - that person is unable alone to extricate himself from his spiritual death anymore than a person who is physically dead can restore himself to life. He must have help from God and to get it, he must ask for it or someone else must ask for him.
In the case of the person in sin who is not hardened in his attitude to God’s will, God’s wishes - without infringing upon his free will - can act upon, can influence, through grace, the person’s intellect and will, causing him to recognize the evil of sin and producing a spirit of repentance and amendment of life.
In the case of the person hardened in a state of sin, the sinner who has no interest in virtue or in carrying out God’s will, the person whose conscience is dead or dysfunctional, God’s grace cannot act because this man’s free will rejects God’s grace.
However, Masses can be offered or other prayers on the sinner’s behalf can be made by family or friends : this intercession may be sufficient to induce God’s mercy to soften the heart of the sinner over time, to influence his free will to move towards asking God for mercy, towards a spirit of repentance and amendment of life.
posted by fergail at 2:18 PM
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