The following question was
submitted: “Since God knows the future, why does He create souls that he knows
will spend eternity in Hell?” This is
part two of the response. Below are
exact quotes from Saint Francis DeSales.
Next week we will look at Father Most’s synthesis of the Saint’s
teaching.
275. The
teaching of St. Francis himself: We
shall read his views from three passages of his Treatise on the Love of God,
and then, collect the principal points.
1)
Treatise 3.5: St. Francis is speaking about the gift of final perseverance:
4 "First
he willed, with a genuine will that even after the sin of Adam all should be
saved, but in a way and with means suited to the condition of our nature; that
is, He willed the salvation of all who would give consent to the graces and
favours which He would prepare, offer, and distribute for this purpose. Now
among those favours, He willed that the call be first, and that it be so
tempered to our freedom
that we at our good pleasure could accept or reject it. And to those whom He
foresaw would accept, He willed to give the sacred movements of repentance; and
to those who would follow those movements, He decreed to give holy love; and to
those who would have love He planned to give the means needed to persevere; and
to those who would use these divine helps, He decreed to give final
perseverance and the glorious happiness of His eternal love....Without doubt,
God prepared heaven only for those whom He foresaw would be His... But it is
in our power to be His: for although the gift of being God’s belongs to God,
yet this is a gift which God denies to no one, but offers to all, and gives to
those who freely consent to receive it.”
2) Treatise
4.6: In this chapter St. Francis is concerned principally with explaining
that we owe it to God that we are able to love God: 5 "So tell me, miserable man, what you have done, in all these
things, of which you could boast? You have consented, I know it well: the movement
of your will freely followed the movement of heavenly grace. But all that-what
else is it but to receive the divine working and not to resist? And what
do you have in this that you have not received? Yes, even, poor man, you
have even received the acceptance of which you boast, and the consent, which
you brag about... Is it not the part of most insane impiety to think that you
gave effective and holy activity to the divine inspiration because you did not
take it away by resisting? We can hinder the efficacy of inspiration, but we
cannot give efficacy to it....”
3) Treatise
4.5: In this chapter St. Francis vigorously insists that the sole cause of
the lack of love is in us: 6
”Just as it would be the
part of impious boldness to attribute to the powers of our will the works of
holy love that the Holy Spirit does in us and with us, so also it would be the
part of impious boldness to wish to attribute the lack of love in an ungrateful
man to the lack of heavenly help and grace. For the Holy Spirit cries out everywhere,
on the contrary, that our destruction comes from us . . . that divine Goodness
wills that no one perish, but wills that all come to the knowledge of the
truth: He wills that all men be saved. ”
Notes (As Fr. Most Records Them):
4 Treatise on the Love of God 3.5
5 Ibid., 4.6
6 Ibid., 4.5
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