Augustine, a convert to Christianity—who had experienced four seconds of providence in 386 AD, who lived during the Fall of Rome in 410, who watched Germanic tribes overrun the western empire and Vandals sweep through Spain into North Africa towards his own diocese of Hippo, who was approaching death in the 420s—was at peace. He knew that the will of God is behind all things, despite disasters, sufferings, and the threat of death.
Who has peace today? Our world loves disasters. The news, social media, and movies feed on fear. Fear of an F-5 tornado, a category-5 hurricane, a tsunami, a terrorist attack, a random shooting, a nuclear war . . . the end of time. Few of us actually experience such disasters, but the people of the Roman Empire during Augustine’s time did.
For the Romans, Rome was civilization. What would succeed civilization but barbarism, evil, and death? And why was this happening? Romans asked, Why have the gods forsaken us? Some answered: It is the Christians, who have denied Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, and the rest, and focus on only one god. Therefore, the gods are punishing us, and Rome is doomed. Augustine knew differently. “God’s providence constantly uses war to correct and chasten the corrupt morals of mankind,” he wrote in 426 in his masterpiece The City of God.
God is behind all earthly events. Providence is eternally active in the affairs of humans—of all creation. Such is the thesis of The City of God. Rome fell not because of the “anger of the gods” but because the one, true God willed it. Humans die not because of something they have done but because the one, true God wills it. All things, all corporeal life, comes to an end. The works of humans, the wonders of architecture, the power of modern technology, all will be destroyed in time. But we ask, as the Romans did, Why? Why must bad things, such as suffering and death, happen to the good and the innocent?
The City of God is a deep and complex book, but there’s a reason why people have been reading it for over a millennia and a half. In its depths, it offers a simple primer on providence.
During his papacy, Pope St. John Paul II wrote extensively on suffering and its validity for Christians; in his works he was echoing the theme of The City of God. Augustine wrote succinctly:
[God] has willed that these temporal goods and temporal evils should befall good and bad alike, so that the good things should not be too eagerly coveted, when it is seen that the wicked also enjoy them, and that the evils should not be discreditably shunned, when it is apparent that the good are often afflicted with them.
Remember, he declared, that humans are conceived in sin; the good and bad are both punished, not because they are equal, but because both love temporal existence and must be chastened. Who can argue against this when Christ Himself taught the same lessons?
Throughout his book, Augustine condemns pagans for doing every hedonistic vice there is, pointing out how such hedonism is what led to the destruction of Rome. At the same time though, this hedonism, he implies, necessitated the coming of Christ the Redeemer. Only Providence sees, knows, and guides all things towards our ultimate good—including allowing evils and sufferings that, by His grace, have the power to transform our hearts.
In theory, this makes sense . . . but then we see what the powerful can do; we see the privileges of wealth; we see the fame that money and power bring—all while most of us live our anonymous lives in obscurity. (Just think if I was an Instagram influencer or had my own YouTube Channel!) But Providence is the great equalizer. The great, the rich, the famous, begin to lose hair, develop arthritis in their joints, suffer incontinence, and develop cataracts. The slow, painful march towards the end demands such patience, such faith!
[God] gives earthly dominion both to good men and to evil . . . in accordance with the order of events in history, an order completely hidden from us, but perfectly known to God himself.
This is why Augustine was at peace. He knew that God was in control, that God is good, that evil is but a departure from ultimate good, thus suffering and death are, ultimately, . . . good.
The skeptic then asks, with good reason, “So are we therefore mere puppets on a string?” Philosophers for millennia have debated the issue of fate and will. One of Augustine’s favorite writers, Cicero, believed that the gods cannot have ultimate control over the future because this would limit free will—and no good Roman would want to admit that he or she was not in charge of their own thoughts and behavior. It is the issue of foreknowledge, which Martin Luther wrote extensively about in the sixteenth century. If God know all things, all events, even those in the future, then by knowing, God is willing.
No, that’s not right, responded Augustine. God knows “all things before they happen and . . . leaves nothing unordered. From him come all powers, but not all wills.” What does this mean? “We are not afraid that what we do by an act of will may not be a voluntary act, because God, with his infallible prescience, knew that we should do it.”
God does not conform to the proposition that either He is in control, or we are. Instead, God is in control, and we are in control of our own actions—but God knows our actions even before we perform them.
This was David’s message in Psalm 139. God in His great love will not abandon us to our own ways. Augustine, in the Confessions as well as The City of God, examines the intricacies of Providence per the nature of time. Following St. John, God is the creator of time, and as the Creator, He is not bound by time—He is time. God creates beginning and end simultaneously. God sees past, present, and future simultaneously. The Son, the Logos, is with God in the beginning, appears in time in His creation at the Incarnation, leaves His creation at the Ascension, and God the Holy Spirit interacts with time until the end.
God sees all simultaneously, hence He knows all simultaneously. But such is His great love for His creation that He allows them to live in time, making their own decisions, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, sometimes living, sometimes dying—all in the presence of Love, as John so eloquently expressed.
God showers Love upon His creatures and bids them to respond to Him in love. To respond to God in Love is to meet and fulfill what He has providentially determined. To deny God’s love, to distance oneself from Him, is to deny His will, His providence, and doom oneself to the consequences of not fulfilling God’s will. God knows the choices we make, has foreseen them, but does not change them, does not pull us back from walking in front of the bus. Walking in front of the bus might be exactly what He allows, in His love and wisdom, for our ultimate good.
But wait! What then is the efficacy of prayer? Augustine wrote: “Prayers are effectual in obtaining all that God foreknew that he would grant in answer to them.” So we are praying for something or some outcome that God already knows? Augustine answers:
The fact that God foreknew that a man would sin does not make a man sin; on the contrary, it cannot be doubted that it is the man himself who sins just because he whose prescience cannot be mistaken has foreseen that the man himself would sin. A man does not sin unless he wills to sin; and if he had willed not to sin, then God would have foreseen that refusal.
So yes, humans have free will. Our Father knows what we have done, are doing, and will do, and in His Love He has directed us, through His councils, His scriptures, His Church, His revelations, as to how we should choose to act. If we act according to the ways of God, then we are more apt to conform to His will, that is, what God wishes us to do through His love.
The basic rule, Augustine taught, is simple: Do what Love tells us to do. Do unto others what we would have them do unto us. As Jesus taught, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” If we hallow God’s name and act in Love toward God, His will will indeed be done.
Editor’s Note: This is part 4 in a series on understanding Divine Providence as revealed to us by God and interpreted by man throughout history. Catch up on the series here.
Augustine. (1984). The City of God (H. Bettenson, Trans.). Penguin Books. (Original work published ca. 426)
Image from Wikimedia Commons
