God created man with free will. He allows Sin and permits People to Damn Themselves to manifest His Justice, Mercy, and Goodness — for His Greater Honor and Glory.
God allows evil for His greater glory and in order to bring about greater good.[1] God allows some people to (voluntarily) sin and to damn themselves because their damnation manifests God’s Justice more clearly than if damnation had been something which never occurred but which we understood only as something that could have – but didn’t – ever happen.
Similarly, God’s Mercy and Goodness in saving the elect is more manifest in contrast to the actual damnation of other souls, since the damned very evidently manifest what could have happened to the elect, had God not chosen to save them, because of His Mercy and Goodness.
Although sin itself is evil, this universe which God made, in which He allows sin and damnation, is a better universe as a whole, because it manifests God’s Mercy, Goodness and Justice better than if there had been no sin. By better manifesting God’s perfections, the universe gives greater Glory to God.[2] For God’s only end is His Own Glory, that is, Himself. Any other end (less than God) is unworthy of God.[3]
Thus, we see that, for His own Glory and to manifest His perfections, God saves some persons and gives them happiness. Likewise, for His own Glory and to manifest His perfections, God allows some persons to damn themselves and be unhappy.[4]
God chooses the elect, whereas the damned, with their free will, cause their own damnation.
God can and does save anyone He wishes to save. God never forces anyone to sin and never forces anyone to damn himself. However, there are some men that God allows to damn themselves.
Sacred Scripture infallibly declares:
The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord: whithersoever He will He shall turn it.
Proverbs 21:1 (emphasis added).
When this passage from Proverbs says God turns the heart of the king “whithersoever He will”, it shows that whenever God chooses to save the king (or anyone else), He does it without forcing a man’s free will.[5] Notice that Sacred Scripture does not say that God can turn the heart of the king unless the king is one of those unconvertable souls. There is no such thing (among the living) as a soul which God could not convert. Although God can convert anyone, He allows some men to damn themselves. St. Thomas Aquinas and other Doctors of the Catholic Church teach these same truths.[6]
In a certain way, it is true that God Wills all men to be saved, but this is (as it were) a “contingent will” or “antecedent will” subject to a condition that was not fulfilled.
St. Paul teaches that God “will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4. However, God wills all men to be saved upon a condition which was not fulfilled, viz., that there be no sin.
Because sin entered the world, God’s eternal, unconditional Will (i.e., His “subsequent” Will) is that some persons are not saved and are not even “called” through grace. Our Lord teaches: “many [not all] are called but few are chosen.” St. Matthew’s Gospel, 22:14 (bracketed words added).
Also, Our Lord teaches us that most people go to hell and few people even find the path to salvation (much less follow this path):
Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!
St. Matthew’s Gospel, 7:13-14 (emphasis added).
Among the examples of men that God could have saved but chose not to save (or even give them any grace), are babies who die without baptism, and also “the profane Samaritans [whom], had He so willed, He would have made devout” (words of St. Ambrose, quoted in the note above).
Absolutely and unconditionally speaking, God does not desire all men to be saved but Wills to allow some men to damn themselves through their own free will.
Although God Wills (in a manner of speaking) to save all men, subject to a condition which was not fulfilled, unconditionally God Wills to bring about His greater glory by saving the elect He has chosen and He Wills to allow the damned to damn themselves by their own voluntary sins. This is why Our Lord did not pray for everyone, in His prayer to His Father after the Last Supper. Here are His words to His Heavenly Father:
I have manifested Thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known, that all things which thou hast given me, are from thee: Because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine ….
St. John’s Gospel, 17:6-9.
God chooses His Elect. They don’t choose Him. As Christ told His Apostles, who were the beginning of His Church:
You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you ….
St. John’s Gospel, 15:16.
Since it is false that Christ desires absolutely and unconditionally that all men are saved, we should not hope to fulfill Christ’s (supposed) desire for universal salvation, promoted by the liberal N-SSPX and by the rest of the conciliar church.
We should not hope for impossible things. So, for example, we should not hope we become angelic spirits or that we sprout wings and fly into the air. Likewise, it is impossible for all men to be saved and so we should not hope for universal salvation, but rather we should hope to help bring about the salvation of whomever God chooses to save from their own voluntary sins.
We don’t know with certainty which people around us God chooses as His elect,[7] so God Wills that we try to help everyone save his soul, although we know God does not choose to save everyone but allows some men to damn themselves.
Also, as shown above, Our Lord does not Will unconditionally that all men go to heaven. If He had chosen to save all men, He could have saved them since He can turn their hearts “whithersoever He will” (Proverbs). Instead God allows some men to damn themselves. (It is important to note that God does not damn souls but He allows them to damn themselves!)
Thus, we see that the N-SSPX is wrong when it recently taught that we should hope to fulfill Christ’s desire for universal salvation. Here are the N-SSPX’s words:
Only when the Church is brought back to full health can we hope to fulfill Christ’s desire that all men come to know Him and find salvation. Supporting the SSPX is about bringing the Gospel to all of those with ears to hear in the hope that, by God’s grace, hearts will be converted, and souls saved.[8]
Conclusion
The elect in heaven have great reason to be humble and grateful, since, in God’s Goodness and Mercy, He gave them the undeserved, free gifts of grace and salvation. God was not obligated to give them grace and not obliged to choose them as His elect.
We hope to save our souls and hope to be among God’s elect. We have great reason to be humble and grateful because God gave us grace and made us Catholics without our deserving these free gifts. Thus, we must humbly beg God that He choose us to be among His elect.
Let us Glorify God for the Goodness and Mercy He showed us by making us Catholics, giving us the full Traditions of His true Church!
[1] Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas (the Greatest Doctor of the Catholic Church) explains this truth, quoting St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church:
As Augustine says (Enchiridion xi): “Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.” This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.
Summa, Ia, Q.2 a.3, ad 1 (emphasis added).
[2]
Here is St. Thomas’ fuller explanation of this truth:
It is the part of the best agent to produce an effect which is best in its entirety; but this does not mean that He makes every part of the whole the best absolutely, but in proportion to the whole; in the case of an animal, for instance, its goodness would be taken away if every part of it had the dignity of an eye. Thus, therefore, God also made the universe to be best as a whole, according to the mode of a creature; whereas He did not make each single creature best, but one better than another. And therefore, we find it said of each creature, “God saw the light, that it was good” (Genesis 1:4); and in like manner of each one of the rest. But of all together it is said, “God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Summa, Ia, Q.47, a.2, ad 1 (emphasis added).
[3]
Here is how St. Thomas explains this truth:
[E]ach and every creature exists for the perfection of the entire universe. Furthermore, the entire universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end, inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine goodness, to the glory of God.
Summa, Ia, Q.65., a2, respondeo (emphasis added).
God loves mankind and the rest of creation because they are His work and He gave them whatever goodness they have. But they are finite goods which God loves finitely as part of His infinite love for Himself. For a fuller explanation of this truth, read this article: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/god-does-not-infinitely-love-any-creature.html
[4]
Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas (quoting St. Paul) explains this Truth of the Catholic Faith:
Let us then consider the whole of the human race, as we consider the whole universe. God Wills to manifest His goodness in men; in respect to those whom He predestines, by means of His mercy, as sparing them; and in respect of others, whom he reprobates, by means of His justice, in punishing them.
This is the reason why God elects some and rejects others. To this, the Apostle refers, saying (Romans 9:22-23):
What if God, willing to show His wrath [that is, the vengeance of His justice], and to make His power known, endured [that is, permitted] with much patience vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction; that He might show the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He hath prepared unto glory;
and (2 Timothy 2:20):
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver; but also, of wood and of earth; and some, indeed, unto honor, but some unto dishonor.
Summa, Ia Q. 23 a.5, ad 3 (emphasis added). The bracketed words (in the quotes from St. Paul) are contained in the Summa.
[5] For an explanation how God never acts against man’s free will even in those whom He chooses to save, read the article here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/williamson-bishop-williamson-teaches-the-heresy-that-even-god-is-powerless-to-save-some-men.html
[6] St. Thomas Aquinas, following and quoting the Doctor of the Church, St. Ambrose, teaches that:
God calls whom He deigns to call, and whom He wills He makes religious: the profane Samaritans, had He so willed, He would have made devout.
Summa, IIa IIae, Q.82, a.3, respondeo (emphasis added).
Just as in the Book of Proverbs we see that God can convert the king if He chooses to do so, similarly St. Ambrose teaches that God can convert any profane Samaritans He chooses to convert.
St. Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine, the Doctor of Grace, teaches that God can save anyone He wishes to save. Here are their words:
Hence it is impossible for these two things to be true at the same time — that the Holy Ghost should will to move a certain man to an act of charity, and that this man, by sinning, should lose charity. For the gift of perseverance is reckoned among the blessings of God whereby “whoever is delivered, is most certainly delivered, ” as Augustine says in his book On the Predestination of the Saints (De Dono Persev. xiv).
Summa, IIa IIae, Q.24, a.11, respondeo (emphasis added).
Charity always comes with Sanctifying Grace and makes a man the friend of God. In the quote immediately above, St. Augustine teaches that the Holy Ghost will move any man to charity (and Sanctifying Grace) if He chooses to convert him.
[7] St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine assure us that we cannot know with certainty why God chooses some people as His elect and not others. Here are St. Thomas’s words, quoting St. Augustine:
Yet why He chooses some for glory, and reprobates others [i.e., allows them to damn themselves], has no reason, except the Divine Will. Whence Augustine says (Tract. xxvi. in Joan.):
Why He draws one, and another He draws not, seek not to judge, if thou dost not wish to err.
Summa, Ia Q. 23 a.5, ad 3 (bracketed words added for context).
[8] Emphasis added; quoted from the April 30, 2019 “Dear Friend” letter which Fr. Wegner mass-mailed to everyone on the SSPX U.S. District mailing list and also posted here https://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/fr-wegner-pray-mary-remember-your-mothers-and-pray-holy-mother-church-47813?mc_cid=e244c8c82b&mc_eid=4fbfee0c0b