Henri Morice - Why Bad Things Happen to Good Catholics

Why Bad Things Happen to Good Catholics

And Other Mysteries of Gods Love and Providence Explained!

Henri Morice

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Why Bad Things Happen to Good Catholics is a reprint of Gods Providence Explained (Manchester, New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 1999) with revised chapter titles. It was formerly published as The Gospel of Divine Providence in 1930 by the Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, using Rev. J. M. Lelens translation from the French.

Copyright 1999, 2002 Sophia Institute Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Lorraine Bilodeau

Cover artwork: Paul Kuroda/Superstock and Morris Collection Mexico Architecture, Gary Morris, Zedcor, Inc./Arttoday.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344
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Nihil obstat:
H. B. Ries,
Censor Librorum

Imprimatur:
Samuel Stritch,
Archbishop of Milwaukee
November 17, 1930

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Library of Congress has catalogued an earlier edition of this work as follows:
Morice, Henri, b. 1873.
[Gospel of divine providence]Gods providence explained : how the Lord fashions each moment and each event to care for you and draw you closer to him / Henri Morice.
p. cm.Originally published: The gospel of divine providence. Milwaukee, Wis. : Bruce Pub., 1930.
ISBN 1-928832-01-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 1-928832-42-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Providence and government of God. I. Title.BT135.M57
1999 231.5 dc2199-044834What in me is dark Illumine,
what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.John Milton
Paradise Lost

Editors note: The biblical references in the following pages are based on the Douay-Rheims edition of the Old and New Testaments. Where applicable, biblical quotations have been cross-referenced with the differing names and numeration in the Revised Standard Version, using the following symbol: (RSV =).

Chapter One

How God needs you in His plan for the world

One golden evening, I paused before a bed of daisies, their petals dimmed and dusked with a tinge of amber borrowed from the western sky. As though in admiration, their faces turned toward the setting sun, with something of homage and a mute prayer in their attitude. Each of them, with its golden heart from which white petals radiated, seemed to smile to the heavens.

As I beheld them, thoughts of the relation between God and man flashed into my mind. The sun shines for us all, I mused, but we enjoy its light and heat as though we were each alone. Thus God, who excludes nothing from His solicitude, thinks of all His creatures, even the humblest. He takes particular care of each of them. A consoling thought is this, and a thought that grips us strongly if we meditate on the knowledge of God, on the way in which He communicates Himself to us, and on the plan that He has in each of His works.

God sees at once the whole and the parts

God is a king, incomparable, unique. When a human ruler issues a decree, he is far, indeed, from foreseeing all its applications. He has the general interest in view, but he cannot foresee or attend to the individual needs of all his subjects. They are too numerous; he cannot act as a father to each. Greatly gifted he may be, but his memory is short and his mind limited. If he contemplates the whole, detail escapes him, and vice versa. Examine the typography of a whole page, and you cannot distinguish one line; read a few words, and the rest is but vaguely seen by your eyes. A general who plans a campaign sees only his troops in great masses; the regiments and battalions are to him only units of combat. But when he has to examine the serviceable state, say, of one officer proposed for promotion, then he has in his mind only one individual; relegated to the dim background is the vast army.

Such is the law of the human mind. But to this law, which is caused by the poverty of our nature, the Divine Mind is not subject. There are no limitations in God. God sees with one single glance the whole and the part. Thus is answered the objection opposed to the idea of a particular Providence. Thus is answered the question: How can God busy Himself with us, since it is by laws that He governs us?

The difficulty is only apparent. To Infinite Wisdom, there is no opposition between the general and the particular. It is the same act for God to conceive a law and to think of all the cases to which it will be applied. It is by the selfsame act that He rules the universe and orients toward his destined end the child just born.

God has known you from eternity

And see the beautiful consequences of this doctrine.

First, it implies the pre-existence of each one of us in the Divine Thought. We may say that during the centuries that preceded our birth, there was no question of our own little personality. As a matter of fact, at the time of Julius Caesar, no one foresaw our passage upon this earth, or our history, or our destiny.

And yet at that faraway epoch, and ages before, there was one who was interested in us. God had already set the horologe that would register the hour of our birth and had fixed our precise locus in the vastness of space. From all eternity, He has conceived all futurity. Each one of those whom He calls into existence represents one aspect of His infinite perfections. Each one of them answers a creative idea, particular and eternal. Before birth, therefore, I existed not only as a hope in the fecundity of my race, but also as an actual form in the Divine Thought.

In the depths of His eternity, God has thought of us, and among the numberless generations that are to people the earth, He has called and has chosen His own. He knows their number and their names. On the day of the final reckoning, when the just will be separated from the wicked, Christ will tell them, Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

How fearful is this mystery of predestination! It is true that our salvation is absolutely in our hands, since it depends on our fidelity to divine grace. Gods foreknowledge does not interfere with our liberty. Nevertheless, our destiny is settled forever. Shall I be among the saved or the lost? God knows the answer.

Christ knew you even during His earthly life

To redeem those whom He had chosen, God decided to send His Son into the world. Christ, who is infinite knowledge, knew each of those who were to rejoice over His coming and profit by His Sacrifice. It is their desires and their pleadings that have drawn Him down to earth. With a profound compassion, He has heard their cry of distress and has answered their appeal for the divine Messiah. Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above; and let the clouds rain the Just One. Let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior.

Without any pride, I may, therefore, believe that I am one of the causes of the Incarnation. Infinitesimally, but positively and really, I have influenced the divine decision. And when the Word took flesh in the womb of a Virgin, He could have told me, For thee I have done this.

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