If we were to encapsulate the teachings of the self-help gurus, then they would boil down to “never leave anything to chance.” After all, at the heart of the self-help movement is, well, helping yourself, by taking control of your life and seizing the day. The saints too would exhort us to never leave anything to chance. But they would express this for a very different reason. For the saints there is no such thing as chance. Instead they would urge us to leave everything to Providence. And it is this attitude that make them saints. If we too want to join them in the Church Triumphant then it behooves us to study how the most practical of Christian doctrines, Providence, “works”.
Notice how any discussion of Providence will always have the idea of chance in its orbit. To say that “there is no such thing as chance” might seem provocative at first, but once we unpack it then we will see that it must be profoundly true. If any discussion of Providence cannot proceed without bumping into the notion of chance, then we must begin there.
Toppling the Objections to Providence
On the one hand we know that pure chance, the notion that things “just happen” violates the principle of causality. Everything that happens must have a cause. Usually what we mean by chance then is when we cannot observe the causality or so many causes seemed to converge that the event was so unlikely that it had to be chance. Labeling an event as chance really is a way in for us to admit that we cannot fully explain how an event happened. But this leaves us with only two alternatives—either the causality was governed by some random force that we call chance or it is governed by God through His Providence. Even if it is a tough pill for us to swallow in our empirical age, we must side with the saints in their choosing of the latter and their insistence that there is no such thing as chance.
This raises a second objection in that, by removing chance, it seems to also remove free will. If everything is meticulously planned out, then how can there be freedom to choose? But this is to confuse chance with contingency. God’s Providence has left some things to necessity (like the Incarnation) and some things to contingency (like Mary’s cooperation). But it is by His omnipotence that He governs the bringing about of the necessary things through contingent things (c.f ST I, q.22, a.4). This bears some further explanation because it enables us to marvel more fully at God’s Providence.
Because God is the Creator of all things and, because He knows His own omnipotence, He can know all things that could happen or do happen because He is their ultimate cause. So, despite leaving some things up to free will decisions, He can alter the events surrounding those decisions to suit His purpose. This is not to suggest that He is constantly executing “Plan B”, but an admission that He foresaw all that was to happen. Therefore, His eternal law is simply one plan. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange gives a useful example to demonstrate how this might work.
Over time, the great composer Beethoven grew deaf but, despite not actually be able to hear them, was still able to compose beautiful pieces of music. This was because he knew music not just in hearing it, but through its laws. He could compose without audible experimentation because he knew how the notes would fit together and create harmony. This higher way of knowing his music through the laws governing it made it unnecessary that he try all possible combinations of notes. In knowing the law he, in a very real sense knew all possible combinations enabling him to say “these fit, these don’t” to every set of notes that entered his mind. So too with God. He knows the laws by which the universe is governed, even the “law” of free will by which our actions are presented to Him and thus can Providentially compose the world.
There is one final aspect that bears mention as well and that is the role of petitionary prayer. Prayer is a gift from God meaning that true prayer is always inspired by God in order to conform our desires to the plans of Providence. That is why the holiest of men and women, that is those who are most like God, willing what He wills, will always be the most effective of pray-ers. In asking for what God intends to give, they are free instruments in the implementation of His plans. Prayer then is one of the instrumental causes of Providence, perhaps the most powerful of all them.
The Laws of Divine Providence
The laws of God’s divine composition, which we call Providence, are essentially threefold. First, nothing that happens is contrary to His purpose of Creation, namely, as a manifestation of His Goodness and the rational creature’s share in the revealed Glory of Christ. Second, nothing that happens was not foreseen by God and willed either actively or permissively. Finally, God sees to it that all things work to the spiritual benefit those who are called to be saints and persevere in His love (Romans 8:28).
At this point it is good to be reminded that the doctrine of Providence is practical. Hidden within the word Providence is provide. This means that although we make theological distinctions between God’s active and permissive will, in our daily living we should not make any such distinction. We should see each and everything that happens as coming directly from the hand of God with the intent of providing for the spiritual needs of those who love Him. And everything, means everything including our own sins. God only allows us to fall if, in the end, it leads us towards being more fully invaded by grace.
An example drawn from real life might help us bring all of this into relief. Forgiveness, something most of us struggle with, is only possible with a firm belief in Providence. Recall the story of Joseph the Patriarch. When his brothers sought forgiveness he did not trivialize what they did nor did he forget it. In fact, he remembered it and told them as such. But he remembered it as it truly was, an instrument of Providence. Joseph is the perfect model for the stance towards those that slight us. When we submit to the plans of Divine Providence, we see those who harm us actually doing us a favor. They become instruments in God’s Providential plan. The “logic” is simple if we believe the laws of Providence elucidated above. This does not mean we won’t suffer, but we are guaranteed to draw the fruit that God intended for us to receive when we submit to His will in it. Our Lord was silent in the face of His oppressors precisely to win the grace for us to do the same. Nor does it make what the person has done right. It simply gives us a means by which we can move towards truly forgiving the other person. Providence makes forgiveness possible and even easy.