Thanks for your response to the questions posed under the caption of “Free Will and Choices”. When you posed the question “Why does God give us Free Will”, I found that these reflective questions naturally followed: “What would it be like if everything did turn out right in accordance with a predetermined plan? Your answer: “This takes away the possibility of true love as true love cannot exist without freedom to choose”. Is this not the exact point of free will? Love -wishing for another the best of every circumstance- is our response. Without free will, we are unable to make such a response.
And wisdom or good judgement spring from our experiences, not only those experiences when we are loving and working in cooperation with God’s plan, but also from those times we fail to love. I believe this is what St. Paul means when he says: Where sin exists, grace abounds. We only need to seek, to ask, to knock. Underscores the importance of forgiveness.
The third question is very ambiguous and I must admit confusing. I like your response. For me it’s a real encouragement to open our minds and hearts to expansiveness, to not getting stuck in our sometimes narrow views and perspectives. In presenting the question, I had in mind the difference between “proposing” and “imposing”. The Archbishop has often said: We are here to propose Christ, not impose. I see God as proposing to us all the natural laws of creation which leads to our freedom and well being, but not imposing them. When we fail to see, or fail to follow, we and others suffer the consequences of this. Sort of like “cause and effect”. If we eat too much, (cause) we gain weight (effect). But we gain wisdom as a consequence. Is not “imposing” an act of power, and not an act of love? Imposing to me leads to suffering, not freedom. And we see many examples in our history of countries and institutions imposing their values and what they thought important onto others which lead to great suffering and often violence. For me, God does not impose. He proposes, and then invites us to gain wisdom from the consequences of our choice.
Enough said. Thanks for your interest. This dialog is very beneficial.
Thanks for your response to the questions posed under the caption of “Free Will and Choices”. When you posed the question “Why does God give us Free Will”, I found that these reflective questions naturally followed:
ReplyDelete“What would it be like if everything did turn out right in accordance with a predetermined plan? Your answer: “This takes away the possibility of true love as true love cannot exist without freedom to choose”. Is this not the exact point of free will?
Love -wishing for another the best of every circumstance- is our response. Without free will, we are unable to make such a response.
And wisdom or good judgement spring from our experiences, not only those experiences when we are loving and working in cooperation with God’s plan, but also from those times we fail to love. I believe this is what St. Paul means when he says: Where sin exists, grace abounds. We only need to seek, to ask, to knock. Underscores the importance of forgiveness.
The third question is very ambiguous and I must admit confusing. I like your response. For me it’s a real encouragement to open our minds and hearts to expansiveness, to not getting stuck in our sometimes narrow views and perspectives. In presenting the question, I had in mind the difference between “proposing” and “imposing”. The Archbishop has often said: We are here to propose Christ, not impose. I see God as proposing to us all the natural laws of creation which leads to our freedom and well being, but not imposing them. When we fail to see, or fail to follow, we and others suffer the consequences of this. Sort of like “cause and effect”. If we eat too much, (cause) we gain weight (effect). But we gain wisdom as a consequence. Is not “imposing” an act of power, and not an act of love? Imposing to me leads to suffering, not freedom. And we see many examples in our history of countries and institutions imposing their values and what they thought important onto others which lead to great suffering and often violence.
For me, God does not impose. He proposes, and then invites us to gain wisdom from the consequences of our choice.
Enough said. Thanks for your interest. This dialog is very beneficial.