28 April 2025

A friend sent me a lovely Easter card. Inside she raised a question about God’s Plan. Her minister had been talking about it and she wondered how to square his understanding of God’s Plan with her understanding of our free will.

The two theological ideas do not represent a binary option – God’s Plan versus our free will. The two are different sides of the same mysterious coin. Our humanity prevents us from squaring the circle and resolving these two sides into one, at least, all the time.

Our free will is evident. We are like St. Paul doing the things we hate and not doing the things we love. Somehow our will becomes dominant and this often leads us into situations which we would rather avoid but somehow can’t.

Fortunately, there are times when we are tempted to do something wrong but are constrained not to pursue this particular path. To what extent are we subjecting ourselves to the constraints of God’s mysterious plan for us and others?

Love has the power to influence, direct, change without resorting to force. It can only happen when we submit our will freely to the will of God. ‘Let this cup pass. Not my will but yours be done.’  says Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane revealing the two sides sublimely.

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