Father Anselm Moynihan
God’s providence, then, rules all things, down to the least detail, and rules them with gentle yet irresistible power, making use of our cooperation, and at times even of our very refusal to cooperate. Sometimes we can trace the hand of God in the events of the world or of our own lives and, of course, above all in the life of our Lord and in the history of the Church. Yet even when we do see a design in things, even then it is only a fragment of the vast picture that God is making of the universe.
And for the most part, the workings of Providence, especially here and now when events occur, are utterly hidden from us. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor my ways your ways. As the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my thoughts above yours.” The ultimate pattern of the universe is God’s secret; it is hidden from us until we see him.
Father Moynihan (died 1998) was an Irish Dominican priest and founding editor of Doctrine and Life.
What about free will? What about suffering and tragedy? What about a God of love that is totally controlling? I know, "God can do anything he wants," the incontestable final word. Still I'm up in the air on this one.
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