BE PREPARED Archdiocese of Mobile Tyler Rosser

Instructions 1. Go to /ore/john23/Login.cfm /ore/john23/Login.cfm 2. Enter your login information. 3. After you login, the lecture code for this evening is D096 and you can take your assessment.

Vision 1. Our State is 3% Catholic…if you round up. 2. We are striving to win souls for Christ, not win arguments. 3. We want to be prepared to share with others what we believe, why we believe, and the beauty of believing it. 4. In a broken and hurting world, love is credible.

10/7/2015 Objectives Describe personal response to question, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Describe philosophical response to question, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”, by: Clarifying that evil exists using analogy Explaining why God allows evil Putting into your own words how evil came into the world Tell how God can bring good out of evil

This is Sparky…Why do bad things happen to good people?

The Personal Response 1.Listening 2.Empathy 3.Understanding

The Philosophical Response First, we must clarify that evil (i.e. bad things) exists.

The Philosophical Response When we turn a light off, we notice that not only is darkness the opposite of light, but that darkness is the absence of light. Similarly, not only are good and evil opposites in a colloquial sense, evil is the absence or negation of the good.

The Philosophical Response In other words, in looking at the light and darkness, good and evil analogy, we notice that: 1. The light allows the darkness. God allows evil. 2. The light can bring good out of darkness. God can bring great good out of evil.

Why does God allow evil? In order to answer this, we need to explain the relationship between freedom and love. “[15] The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Genesis 2:15-17 Why did God put the tree in the garden?

Why does God allow evil? “God could now know if Adam and Eve truly loved Him unless they had the opportunity, the choice to disobey Him.” Kevin Cotter, FOCUSEquip

Why does God allow evil?

Love is a choice. In choosing to love or not love, we exercise our freedom. Only in freedom can we truly love the other and receive love in return.

Why is their evil in the first place? “The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject “to its bondage to decay.” Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will ‘return to the ground,’ for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 400 What’s the solution?

How can good come out of evil? “But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds, "Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away.” And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, 'Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more'; and the Exsultet sings, 'O happy fault,... which gained for us so great a Redeemer!’” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 412

10/7/2015 Objectives Compare and contrast personal response and philosophical response to question, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Explain why God allows evil Put into your own words how evil came into the world Tell how God can bring good out of evil

Thanks for coming! Any questions?