Why were we made imperfect?
It is tempting, especially when we are hurt by the sins of others or when we find ourselves enslaved to our own "favorite sins" but also generally, to question "Should God really be as sure as He seems to be, that the permission of evil (usually through allowing free will) actually brings about a greater good?" We must remember at such times that we are tempted to deny a few key truths when we ask this question. The title question is not formulated in a clear or Catholic way but in a common way. Thus, let us reformulate it to allow for a more meaningful answer. We will set aside the problem of evil for another more in-depth and direct post(s) on that. Our question perhaps ought to be "In the context of free will, why did God not create us sufficiently wise, virtuous, in relationship to God, etc. to inspire us to better recognize the full weight of sinfulness that it was not only death but suffering of many kinds all often the worst imaginable." I would answer that He made us as good as He could have, however, we cannot after the fact, believe that a tipping of the scales (more than He has) in our favor would be good.
First, we cannot blame our sinfulness on the God who always has and always will do whatever is right and just in our favor (Matthew 5:45, Romans 8:28). It is very easy for an Atheist perhaps to look at the "hot mess" that is man and say, "please, a good God made us!?" However, they miss the whole point of Christianity and its relationship to God. A quote from Hamlet reads, "What a piece of work is a man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"[1] However, I would argue that no other framework is quite so good at explaining both the value of man and his goodness and his depravity as Catholicism and still in a way greater than what Protestantism can offer.[2] God allowed us fairness and ad contra both the Atheism and Protestant views He really does not force Himself upon us. It is fascinating that we hear no account of Adam and Eve praying and yet they had a sabbath already. We do hear of them wandering which is to say not madly in love with their Creator who had so exceedingly blessed them and they even had a skepticism. We don't hear of them inquiring to God more about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, nor its prohibition nor its existence. We do hear them wandering by themselves near it to the point the action of falling is so close, that in a moment, they set aside trust in their Creator for much less, much more limited a pursuit, and so also forsaking their own infinite destiny. The slightest course of action is all that stood between them and the end of everything as it would be balanced and desired (this is what one may call the near occasion of sin). He sure did make us good, and He informed us well of our nuclear option and what it would bring us, even though we had many options (Genesis 2:16-17).
Second, let us recall that the once Lucifer, and now Satan, was the closest Creature to God before man was brought into the picture. Without being God and still being the closest creature to God, he came to refuse to serve God as close as he was to God, he felt he was basically God. So often when we fail to consider perhaps what it means to be different than God i.e. a distinct person, it may mean that we cannot be perfect i.e. not complete in ourselves nor infinite. What logical possibility is there, that we may be totally without need for God and still find ourselves interested in communion? It is God's mercy on the contrary, perhaps, that we are allowed to recover from our delusions of grandeur and self-sufficiency and recognize the goodness, truth, and beauty that is our not only necessary, but willful childlike dependency upon the God Who alone Loves.
In conclusion, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:1-3). "The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown."[3] Perhaps even before the weakness due to original sin, we were necessarily susceptible to corruption if we were truly free to choose either God or against Him. In light of the goodness that God still invites us to, maybe we should rejoice in our weakness and that we always need Him Whom it is good for us to love because it affords us the opportunity to testify to the depth of our love for Him (2 Corinthians 12:9). Let us be thankful we have the Master we do.[4]
FN:
- James Shea, "What does it Mean to be Human?".
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 1.
- Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church in the Modern World _Gaudium et spes_ (7 December 1965), §22.
- Carter Carruthers, "Two Camps: God Vs. Satan", Vivat Agnus Dei, February 14, 2021.
