Why evil has its hour

Excerpts from Holy Abandonment
By: Fr. Ailbe J. Luddy
1934

The malice of men and the holiness of God are combined in a strange collaboration. The Infinitely Holy cannot cease to hate evil. He tolerates it, nevertheless, in order not to deprive man of the use of his liberty. But his justice will claim its imprescriptible rights and hold all to a strict account at the proper moment: nations and families always in this world, because for them there is no eternity; but individual men either here or hereafter.

In the meantime God wills, for the attainment of His purpose, to make use of the malice and the sins of men, as with their virtues and good works. So the very disorders produced by human agents contribute to the order which Providence has designed.

On the side of men there may be much that is blameworthy. God will be their judge. But on the side of Providence everything is just, everything is wise, everything right and good, everything directed to a laudable end, everything brought to a final result which is always absolutely and infinitely amiable. Nero was a monster, still he made martyrs...The crusades seemed a failure because they did not result in the rescue of Jerusalem, but they were the means of saving Europe. The French Revolution turned everything upside down, but it forced society in self-defense to a renewal of life and vigor.

In the persecution of the present time it is evident that Satan has been unchained and that he has received permission to sift the just. “For what what purpose does this triumph of the impious serve? For what purpose does this apparent defeat of the Church serve? For what purpose does this perversion of the masses serve? For what purpose do these governments that ruin the peoples serve? For what purpose does this cowardice, this lukewarmness of persons who are considered religious serve? For what purpose, in a word, does this dominion of evil over good serve?

For what purpose does this evil serve? It is because God respects that liberty of ours which is the condition for merit and demerit. He gives men their way. But when He judges the time opportune to confound sinners, to awaken the slumberers, to stir up the tepid, and to defend the just, He will bring a universal war upon the guilty world. The scourge appears: there is an impressive silence; the clamor of politics is hushed; faith revives; the churches are filled as before. God had been forgotten. People remember now that He is the Master of all events…

The scourges of God come as trials to some, as chastisements to others; but they bring the grace of spiritual revival to every soul of good will. Happy he who can comprehend them and put them to profit!

His anger has its source in mercy!