Divine Providence

There is nothing of anarchy in the world except for the apparent chaos produced by wilful men. For the rest, the world goes on with an obedient regularity as assured and as effective as the dull patience of a setting hen. Even the wars of the animals and the rages of the elements are predictable and obedient pursuance of the narrow paths to determined ends which is the stable characteristic of the natural. The world moves on, and everything in it, from sunrise to sunset, from new moon to full moon, from century to century, as if it had intelligence; as an arrow flies to its mark as though it had eyes. The arrow is in fact directed by eyes, but by the eyes and hands of the archer; the world is directed by an intelligence, by the intelligence of God.

The discovery of some of the less obvious details of that assured direction makes up the great triumphs of scientific investigation. The formulation of the discovered details of order, the unveiled evidence s of divine intelligence in nature, are scientific laws; the progress in the formulation of such laws and their constant correction spell out in huge letters the supremacy of divine and the plodding limits of human intelligence. It is right that we demand sharp intelligence and long training for the human mind that sets out on the search of the details of divine intelligence in the world of nature; for order is a product of a directing intelligence, and not to be discovered or appreciated except by doggedly intelligent pursuit of truth. The intelligent course of the world is evidence of intelligent direction or government on a divine scale.

The same inspiring truth is readily arrived at if the search starts, not from the facts of the world but from the truth of God. He is infinite goodness. Such goodness demands that the world created by it be directed to perfection, that is, governed; it is a contradiction to goodness to picture divinity as abandoning the created world as perversely as a wicked mother abandons a new-born infant. God is infinite intelligence, and His provident plan of the universe includes every detail of this stupendous work; to deny the execution of that plan to God is to deny the infinite wisdom that drew it up or the infinite power that puts it into operation. The plans of men too often fall short of completion because there are things men cannot know in making their plans, and there are rival powers strong enough to make men's efforts futile. There are no defects in the plans of infinite wisdom, no thwarting of infinite power's execution of those plans. The government of the world is the execution of the Providence of God.

It does not do to push God out of the picture and explain that the orderly world is nature's work. True enough, nature is the cause of the order in the world; but not nature in capital letters. The order stems from particular natures: the nature of an oak, of a dachshund, of a worm, of sulphur, or gooseberries. Our confusion results from our inevitable practice of hauling God up to trial in a human court. We can impose direction on things only from the outside, as the archer imposes a violent direction on the arrow. We can do nothing about the inner principle of things, about their very nature, for natures are not our product. God suffers no such human limitations for natures are precisely His products. His directions are not extrinsic, violent things. The finger of God writes His directions in the very fibers of the things He makes and directs; those divinely written directions we call nature's directions or nature's laws. And so they are. But nature and nature's necessity are not substitutes for God; rather they are a record of His governing intelligence.

To those who resent God as an intruder on a self-sufficient world, chance, that is coincidence or accident, has seemed a much more appealing explanation of nature's order than the omnipotent government of divinity. Chance, however, is not an agent at the root of the history of the world; it is a vague name given to the clash of causes each of which was going its own way in determined obedience. A bird struck by a lightning bolt is a victim of chance, but obviously both the bird and the lightning were acting in obedience to nature's determinations. Chance is a handy explanation of upsets of order, but it is an impossibility unless a previous order is in the process of execution. It does not make order but supposes it, and is necessarily limited to the area of causes which can be impeded by other causes. There are no surprises for God in the long history of nature's activity. Omnipotence and infinite wisdom are not to be caught off balance by coincidence or accident. Chance is not God's rival but His instrument in the interlocking pattern of nature's activity.

The orderly course of the world is not the result of domestic processes in government. There are on aristocratic governing boards laying down the rules. The aristocracy of science does not make the laws but rather discovers the laws already made. There is but one Governor of the world, as there is but one Architect and one Creator; for all three of these, omnipotence and omniscience are necessary, and only God is all powerful and all wise. No one thing in nature is the cause of nature's order, rather everything in nature is a part of that order; nothing in nature is the goal of nature's order, not even that universal order itself. The world does not exist for itself any more that it exists from itself; it does not fulfill itself any more that it gives birth to itself. It is from God; and it is to Him that every bit of its order is directed. Nature bends all its energy to a return to God, becoming more like Him as it sharpens the divine image by reaching to its natural perfection.

There are no areas of anarchy in nature; no successful secession from the divine government of the world. Men can, of course, rebel against the order of charity whose goal is heaven; by that rebellion they do not escape divine government but plunge into the order of justice which confirms their choice of hell. Punishment is no less evidence of orderly government than the awards given to heroes. All the world exists on a loan from God, a loan that is vital not only for the first production of things but for their moment to moment endurance. Successful separation from the divine order would be instant annihilation; a thing not to be achieved by the borrowers of existence but by a recall of the loan by the creditor. But by the goodness of God, annihilation never happens.

My Way of Life
- Confraternity of the Precious Blood