December 15, 2012 – Catechism 2012 – 2016

Predestination is always a topic that is brought up with some confusion.  Catholics believe in predestination, the idea that God knows who is going to be in Heaven forever.  That makes sense when you believe that God is outside of time, ever present through all eternity, all knowing.  That is just part of His knowledge.  But Catholics do not believe in double predestination.  This is the idea that there are some predestined for good and some for evil and that is set in stone and cannot be changed.  Catholics believe that every soul has the opportunity to be saved because of what Christ did and everyone has the choice to follow God or not.  That is our free will.  Double predestination takes that free will away and throws you into on pot or the other.  Just because God knows what going to happen does take away from our choice in making it happen.  Free will is there and predestination only explains the idea that God knows what our choice is going to be, not that we have no choice, which is what double predestination teaches. 

I like the idea that we never stop climbing.  That is something I struggle with, thinking we know enough or have enough figured out to get by.  That is arrogance slipping in.  How much there is I don’t know.  If I ever think I know it all, somebody smack me upside the head.  Almost everyday I watch my children I realize how little I know about the world and how it works.  Always keep climbing.