LAPORTE – Floods, earthquakes, disease, disabilities, murders, wars, genocide. There is little doubt evil exists in our world and the presence of it was the topic of a recent talk by Father Nate Edquist, administrator of Holy Family Parish.
A group of nearly 50 young adults from across the Diocese of Gary gathered at Aurelio’s Pizza in LaPorte, for Father Edquist’s talk, “Aquinas 101: Why is There Evil?” During his presentation he shared St. Thomas Aquinas’s thoughts on evil contained in his Summa Theologiae.
Father Edquist began by detailing three beliefs about God. He said God is omnibenevolent (all-good), omnipotence (all-powerful), and omniscient (all-knowing). Using an atheistic argument, Father Edquist proposed that God should be able to want there to be no evil, know there is going to be evil and be powerful enough to prevent all evil.
“Christians, ourselves will have these questions, ‘How could an all-good, all knowing, all-powerful God allow evil to happen?’” he said. “But there is evil. That is what we agree with. God is all-good, omnibenevolent. God wants to bring some kind of good out of evil.”
Father Edquist further illustrated that if all evil were prevented, much good would be absent from the universe. He asked the group to think of all the good that has happened after disasters, using the recent earthquake in Turkey as an example. Granted there was much death and destruction, but there was also humanitarian aid poured in which wouldn’t have under normal circumstances.
“God uses evil things to bring about some greater good, like those acts of charity,” he said.
Father Edquist differentiated between natural evil (diseases, natural disasters, fires, disabilities, etc.) and moral evils (murder, theft, genocide, wars, etc.).
God is all-powerful; however, Father Edquist explained there are things God can’t do, and He follows his own rules – certain laws of physics, laws of rationality. “God cannot commit a logical contradiction, such as a married bachelor or a square circle. It doesn’t make any sense. God can’t do something that’s logically against what He has already established. He cannot create another God that’s equally as powerful as Him,” said Father Edquist.
He stated, “God does not take away human freedom.”
St. Thomas Aquinas explains evil as a privation: the lack of being in something good which does exist.
“Everything that exists has goodness because God created it. When there is evil, a thing is lacking in perfection. Evil is not a thing, it’s a privation of a thing. It cannot exist on its own. Evil is like a hole. Something that is not there. There should be something covering it up,” said Father Edquist.
He used the recent pandemic as an example. “Is the coronavirus an evil thing? Probably not in itself. The virus is good in that it is a living thing, made of matter. The only reason the virus is evil is how it has affected us negatively.”
St. Aquinas referred to the phrase, “Due to you.” Father Edquist stated it’s a good due to you according to your nature. The absence of something that is part of our nature is an evil. He noted Aquinas refers to blindness as a natural evil as sight is due to us according to our nature.
As he wrapped up his talk, Father Edquist stressed, “All evil in the world needs to be seen through God’s perspective, and, for the Christian, through the death and resurrection of Christ.”
He explained that since someone divine has been wronged by the sins of humankind, the damage done to the relationship can only be repaired by a divine person.
“Christ restores humanity’s fallen state to God’s original plan for us, only even better. The greatest good in the history of humanity, the Resurrection of Christ, came from the greatest evil in the history of humanity, the killing of God in the person of Christ. From that comes the restoration of our fallen state,” he said.
The evening’s talk reminded parishioner Olivia Dybing how little she knows about her faith and that there’s always more to learn. “Now when I’m asked what is evil and why it exists, I feel I can better respond to my friends if they ask me questions about it,” she said. “It forces me to make sure I know why I’m choosing this faith and why I want to participate in it still.”
The evening gave Eric and Erin Parrish an opportunity for a night out with others within the church family. The LaPorte couple, and parents of five young children, said the program provided a great time to grow in their faith, surround them with others and make friends with others who were there to grow in their faith as well.
“We all know there’s evil within our world. Father Nate’s talk helps to equip us with knowledge, whether we are approached with questions that we can explain better or just give ourselves a little more knowledge and confidence in why we believe what we believe,” said Erin Parrish.