From Where Does Evil Come?

“Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 311).

By Deacon Frederick Bartels
7 September 2023

Anyone who’s studied world history knows that it’s no stranger to evil. We might think of the bloodletting of the recent world wars, terrorism, human trafficking, murder, abortion, and on and on. Then there are those lesser atrocities that remain nevertheless horrible: betrayal, infidelity, manipulation, rage, greed, deceit, theft, and the blatant lies of politicians and even those we call “ordinary people.” That, of course, is the short list.

We might also think of the unspeakable tragedy of a child gunned down in gang shooting or a little girl who suddenly disappears from a playground, carted off by sex-trafficking thugs, never to be seen by her parents again. Then there are the widely publicized, terribly dark and evil sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Church to her core.

What is the Cause of Evil?

The question of the cause of these evils is easy to answer. They are moral evils perpetrated by free agents, by fallen men who freely choose to do evil rather than do good. It’s easy to see that God does not cause these moral evils, although he does permit them in order to bring about an equal or greater good. The fact is, God has bestowed on man the power of freedom in order to allow him to freely choose to love God and others. However, with this power comes the risk of abusing it. When that happens, we call it sin. When man deliberately uses his freedom wrongly, he causes moral evil—something which harms not only others but even the perpetrator himself.

As our Lord said in Matthew’s gospel, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt 15:19).

In speaking about how moral evil entered the world, the Church teaches:

Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it.

CCC 311

God Brings Good from Evil

Pointing out that God brings good from evil, St. Augustine wrote, “For almighty God…, because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.”

But how does God bring good from evil? If we peer back in our personal history with the eyes of faith, we can discover God’s almighty power at work in bringing light from darkness. Someone lied about us and we lost our job, only to find a better one. A friendship grows all the stronger after betrayal and subsequent reconciliation. A manager at an abortion facility repents and thus tirelessly works for the prolife cause. A maimed soldier returns from war, bringing immeasurable good into his home and family. Prayers offered for someone who is harmed, including the perpetrator. A new virtuous life lived in Christ after a life of vice and sin.

The greatest example of God bringing good from moral evil is found in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The innocent One who came to serve rather than be served, is murdered on a Roman cross. By his voluntary sacrifice, the greatest goods are poured out on mankind: redemption, the breaking of the power of sin and evil, the offer of eternal life.

From the greatest moral evil ever committed—the rejection and murder of God’s only Son, caused by the sins of all men—God, by his grace that “abounded all the more”, brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.

CCC 312

Evil Never Becomes a Good

When people choose to sin, they do so not for evil’s sake, but in thinking that it is in some way “good” for them or others. Said another way, they attempt to bring about some perceived, apparent good by an act of evil. Examples include a mother who aborts her child to further her career; a husband who has an affair to enjoy the pleasures of sex; A businessman who cheats his customers to provide additional income for his family; a woman who flaunts her body on social media sites to gain the attention she craves; a clergyman who abuses a young boy to satisfy his homosexual appetites; a person who lies to protect his reputation.

In all these cases, people commit moral evil in order to bring about a perceived “good.” Each case is a violation of the first principle of the moral law: one must never do evil that good may come from it. An act that is evil remains evil, regardless of one’s supposed good intentions. Evil can never be transformed into something good by good intentions.

Physical Evils

Physical evils like cancer and tornadoes are harder to understand and explain. Why does God allow these evils? Could he not have created a world free of them?

But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world “in a state of journeying” towards its ultimate perfection. In God’s plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection.

CCC 310

The Scandal of Evil

Unfortunately, evil can sometimes turn people away from God, especially those whose faith is weak. On the other hand, it can and does indeed often turn people toward God and serve to bring about repentance or otherwise deepen their faith. Ultimately, the question of evil remains mysterious in many ways. Nevertheless, as the Church points out, there is not a single aspect of the Christian faith that is not in some way an answer to evil:

If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

CCC 309