Divine Will

[Guest :: JP2Iloveyou ::]

OK, I have been trying to find an answer to this for a long time and no one can seem to answer it. Here is the problem.

God wanted to save humanity after the fall. The means to achieve this was the Passion and death of Christ. It follows, therefore, that God willed the Passion of Christ.

So far, everything is OK. However, the Catechism says very clearly that God is neither the direct [b]nor the indirect[/b] cause of evil. The Catechism goes on to say that those who were directly responsible for the Crucifixition are responsible before God for their actions. So, here is my question. How is it that if God wills the Passion and death of Christ that he does not will that the Roman soldiers who put him to death commit the sin of putting Christ to death.

God certainly didn't take away the free will of the soldiers, so imagine if this scenario had played out. What if the soldiers had had a sudden change of heart and decided that they were not going to carry out the Crucifixition and instead chose to let Christ go. Does it follow then that the human race would not be redeemed?

The only conclusion I can come up with is that God had a different plan for our redemption, but mankind just screwed that up as well, so he had to go the next route of gaining our salvation by means of the Passion. However, this doesn't seem to agree with Scripture. Christ predicts his Passion. He says that he must go up to Jerusalem and be crucified. In fact, in the Agony in the Garden, he asks the Father to let this cup pass him by if it be in the Father's will.

I'm totally stumped on this. Anyone who can offer some help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, this can be extended to martyrs. People say that "God" calls some people to be martyrs, but does he also, therefore, call some people to martyr them? After all, without the "martyrer" there can be no martyr.

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
2/14 - Sts. Cyril and Methodius

JP2Iloveyou,

There must be a distinction made between the active and passive will of God. The active will of God is where God directly wills something to happen - for instance, the Incarnation and other miracles are instantiations of the active will of God. Then there is the passive will of God, where God permits/tolerates certain actions to occur. These can be goods or evils, but an instance of this was the Passion. It's not that the Passion of Our Lord was in any way necessary, nor is it necessary that God directly willed the Passion of Christ. God willed our salvation, and in His passive will He allowed us to crucify His Son. I'd prefer not to get in to the free will/determinism debate if I don't have to do so. In his book [i]The Lord[/i], Romano Guardini spends a good amount of time meditating on whether the death of the Lord was necessary, as well as what would have happened had the Pharisees and Sadducees accepted Our Lord as the Messiah. I recommend it to you. Hope this helps.

Yours,
Pio Nono