Some facts of life may receive controversial interpretation: are
they morally good or evil? As an example, divorce is considered evil because it
is linked to adultery, breach of vows, destruction of family and disregard for
children. But what should we think about divorce by mutual consent, which
apparently leads to the parties’ betterment? Can it be counted as good? The Gospel
teaches that any divorce is an act of disobedience to God’s will. Man is a
creature with limited and imperfect notions, and his ideas of good and evil are
not always correct. Only the One Who is the Cause of the moral law can
precisely know what is good and evil. That is why a Christian, willing to do
good in all, should always submit his will to the Will of the Creator.
Sometimes, man can be bewildered: why
does infinitely good and wise God permit evil? Could He not create an ideal
world, without struggling, suffering and death? The answer to this is not easy.
In “The Karamazov Brothers,” Ivan justified his disbelief by the argument about
an innocent child’s suffering.
It is not possible to understand why God
permits evil, if we view it within the range of this material life.
Materialists explain suffering as a phenomenon which is undesirable but statistically
inevitable. They understand human life as a tangle of injustice, which
essentially has no sense. Scholastic theology treats suffering as retribution
for sin, either personal or original. This is a very legal, formal answer that
fails to match the Christian teaching about God who is loving
and all-forgiving. In order to understand undeserved suffering, we need to look
at it in the perspective of eternity, to which man is called. We believe that
God does not send physical adversities but permits them to happen, so that
suffering and patient ones receive the reward of eternal bliss. Philosophers,
trying to make out the problem of good and evil from the temporary life’s
perspective only, are unable to produce a sufficient answer.
What can we say about God’s permitting of
moral evil? Why does He allow sin to ruin man? This question is inseparably
bound to the man’s free will. God could create us and give us not the
opportunity to choose between good and evil. Had it happened this way, we would
have been robots or beasts, but not humans. Without freedom of choice, there
cannot be moral good, and only mechanical, pre-programmed motion can occur. The
All-Good Maker wished to give us freedom of will and let us develop
spiritually, by this attaining a certain degree of likeness to Him — comparable
to children’s likeness to parents in appearance. That is why freedom of will is
the supreme good which exalts man above the entire nature. However, we need to
be able to use this good properly. It is similar to fire, which is necessary
for life, but which can be very dangerous when handled without due care and
caution.