Daily Advice 12.18.20
Dec. 18th, 2020 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
What have you to share with us today, O Seneca?
"Why do bad things happen to good people?" we ask.
"They don't," Seneca replies.
What is evil? "Sin and crime," "evil council and schemes for greed," "blind lust and avarice." Notice that all of these are things which are in our power to choose. By divine aid-- grace is the usual term-- we refuse evil things and become good. What does it matter in what condition are external things? They were never ours to begin with.
"But why," you ask, does God sometimes allow evil to befall good men? Assuredly he does not. Evil of every sort he keeps far from them - sin and crime, evil counsel and schemes for greed, blind lust and avarice intent upon another's goods. The good man himself he protects and delivers: does any one require of God that he should also guard the good man's luggage? Nay, the good man himself relieves God of this concern; he despises externals.
"Why do bad things happen to good people?" we ask.
"They don't," Seneca replies.
What is evil? "Sin and crime," "evil council and schemes for greed," "blind lust and avarice." Notice that all of these are things which are in our power to choose. By divine aid-- grace is the usual term-- we refuse evil things and become good. What does it matter in what condition are external things? They were never ours to begin with.