Do you ever feel as if something was meant to happen a
certain way in your life, and no matter what you did, things would turn out the
same way? Or, have you experienced
something that seemed to be a remarkable coincidence or fortuitous event and thought,
well that was lucky? But what about free
will? Surely, if we had made a different
choice things would have turned out differently. Life isn’t like a Choose Your Own Adventure
story, in which, whatever choice you make, it always leads to the same outcome.
One thing that sets the Catholic Church apart from certain
other Christian denominations is our stance on predestination. According to the Catechism of the Catholic
Church paragraph 600: “To God, all
moments of time are present in their immediacy.
When therefore He establishes His eternal plan of ‘predestination,’ He
includes in it each person’s free response to His grace.” Put simply, God’s time is not our time. He exists outside of the human concept of
time. God, all-knowing as He is, knows
what choices we will make. That doesn’t
mean we don’t have the free will to make those choices. Because God knows our every move even before
we make it, He has a plan for each of our lives.
St. Paul writes in his letter to the
Ephesians, “In [Christ] we were also chosen, destined in accord with the
purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of
[God’s] will, so that we might exist for the praise of
[God’s] glory, we who first hoped in Christ” (Ephesians 1:11-12). In speaking of destiny, Paul means that God’s
greatest desire is for all to know and love Him. God does not desire that His creation should
suffer. He does not desire that anyone
should go to Hell. He wants us all to
live in eternal happiness with Him. The
choices we make in our lives determine where we will go when we die. Yes, God knows what those choices will be,
but that does not make us any less free to make those choices.
One of my favorite shows of all time is the BBC series Merlin, which aired originally from 2008
to 2012. (You can watch all five seasons
of the show on Netflix.) I’ve been a fan
of Arthurian legend since high school, and I enjoyed this series’ take on the mythos. During the final season of the show, there
was an episode that dealt with Arthur’s fate to die at Mordred’s hand, and
Merlin’s attempts to change Arthur’s fate.
In a conversation between Arthur and Merlin, Arthur says, “If it’s
fated, it doesn’t matter what I do, it’ll still happen.” Merlin responds, “There is a difference between
fate and destiny,” to which Arthur replies, “You think too much.” But Merlin is right. Fate is influenced by choice. You can change your fate. Destiny, on the other hand, seems to be
unchangeable.
What is your take on the difference between fate and destiny,
God’s plan for your life, and the idea of predestination?
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