The Words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“The choice before God in creating the world lay between creating a purely mechanical universe, peopled by mere automatons, or creating a spiritual universe in which there would be a choice of good and evil. What was the condition then of such a universe? He had to endow us with the power to say 'yes' and 'no' and to be captains of our own fate and destiny. Morality implies responsibility and duty, but these can exist only on the condition of freedom. Stones have no morals because they are not free. We do not condemn ice because it is melted by heat. Praise and blame can be bestowed only on those who are masters of their own will. It is only because you have the possibility of saying 'no,' that there’s so much charm in your character when you say 'yes.' Take the quality of freedom away from anyone and it is no more possible for him to be virtuous than it is for the blade of grass which he treads beneath his feet to be virtuous. Take freedom away from life, and there would be no more reason to honor the fortitude of martyrs than there would be to honor the flames which kindle their stakes. Is it therefore any impeachment of God that He chose not to reign over an empire of chemicals? If God has deliberately chosen a kind of empire to be ruled by freedom rather than by force, and if we find that His subjects are able to act against His will, as stars and atoms cannot, does this not prove that He has given to those human beings the chance of breaking allegiance so that there might be meaning and purpose in that allegiance when they freely choose it? Here we have a mere suggestion about the possibility of evil.”
(excerpt from Through the Year with Fulton Sheen)
Reflection on the Archbishop’s words by Father Apostoli
The Archbishop’s meditation focuses on the word, “freedom.” Freedom is the foundation for doing good and doing evil in life. Many people ask the question, “Why does God permit evil to occur in the world? Why doesn’t He stop people from doing wrong, for example, the murderer from killing someone, the thief from robbing others, the abortionist from taking the lives of unborn children?” We can answer these questions in the light of the Archbishop’s teaching by simply stating that God would have to take free will away from every human being. He could easily do this by programming each person like a computer (the Archbishop referred to such people as automatons). Then we would all be programmed to do good, and no evil would exist in the world. It’s as simple as that! But, we must remember that there will be no love in a world where there is no freedom. The reason is that the same freedom required to do something by a loving choice is the same freedom required to refuse to love anyone else but one’s self. In calling this bestowal of freedom on each human being as “God’s choice,” the Archbishop is implying that God is risking being unloved by so many in order that He may be freely and lovingly chosen by others of His own creatures whom He has endowed with reason and free will.
(Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR is the Vice-Postulator of the Cause for Canonization of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Please visit our website!)
