FEATURED IMAGE: Guilherme Stecanella at Unsplash
Anastasios
Objection 1: When we talk of a will, we know that this will has an end in something, in some kind of “good.” But we cannot assign to God any end, so God has not will.
Objection 2: If God has a will on us, this will interfere with our free will to do as we think best.
Objection 3: Will moves and is moved, according to Aristotle. But God is unmoved so He has no will.
On the contrary, in 1 Timothy 2, 3-4 we read: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
I answer that when we talk of “will” we need to be careful to distinguish human will from divine will.
Saint Thomas Aquinas has said: “There is will in God, as there is intellect: since will follows upon intellect. For as natural things have actual existence by their form, so the intellect is actually intelligent by its intelligible form.” We need to be careful not to humanize all these elements as if they are done by men with all their limitations and their shortcomings. Everything in God has a special perfection. Everything in God is in its essence and not as a derivative, as it happens for us. So when we say that “God aas a will,” using our human ways of expression, it is not the same to say as this or the other person has a will, even if the concept sounds very similar. We may be good, but God is goodness itself, we may be beautiful but God is beauty itself, we may be wise but God is wisdom in itself and so on.
Reply to objection 1: Yes, we cannot assign an end to God for the reason that he is an end in Himself. The end in God is not out of Him but is in Him. Also here, when we talk of God we need always to think that we are talking of the totally Other, we are talking of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. We may think of a quote attributed to CS Lewis: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Yes, we are made for another world and we can only grasp something from the other world thanks to what was revealed to us throughout the Scripture made of the harmonic conjunction of Old and New Testament. So, God has to be considered, for what we can grasp, in His own terms, not ours.
Reply to objection 2: Let us remember the passage of Saint Paul that we have considered before: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Yes, He wants all people to be saved and He offers the means for this salvation. This is why we have the liturgy, that is His gift, not our creation. But He does not force us to follow His ways, because of the respect He has for our freedom. He wants our good but He knows that this “good” cannot be obtained outside our freedom to choose the good or the evil way.
Reply to objection 3: Also here we need to understand God in His own terms and avoid reducing Him to our level. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains it well: “A will of which the principal object is a good outside itself, must be moved by another; but the object of the divine will is His goodness, which is His essence. Hence, since the will of God is His essence, it is not moved by another than itself, but by itself alone, in the same sense as understanding and willing are said to be movement. This is what Plato meant when he said that the first mover moves itself.” So, the will of God is his essence and is not moved from the outside but move Himself. Certainly these are difficult concepts to be understood but we are talking about God, not about our own personal possibilities or abilities. This is why Saint Augustine in the Confessions so writes: “Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite. And Thee would man praise; man, but a particle of Thy creation; man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that Thou resistest the proud: yet would man praise Thee; he, but a particle of Thy creation. Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? for who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee? for he that knoweth Thee not, may call on Thee as other than Thou art. Or, is it rather, that we call on Thee that we may know Thee? but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe without a preacher? and they that seek the Lord shall praise Him: for they that seek shall find Him, and they that find shall praise Him.” The words of Saint Augustine are the best explanation that can be given.
Follow
