Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.27

“Whether, therefore, Fate works by the aid of the divine spirits that serve Providence, or whether it works by the aid of the soul, or of all nature, or the motions of the stars in heaven, or the powers of angels, or the manifold skill of other spirits, whether the course of Fate is bound together by any or all of these, one thing is certain, namely that Providence is the one unchangeable direct power that gives form to all things which are to come to pass, while Fate is the changing bond, the temporal order of those things which are arranged to come to pass by the direct disposition of God.”

—from Book 4, Prose 6

Because Providence is what gives meaning and order to all things, Fate will unfold through the medium of all things. Every creature, in its own particular way, participates in a unified whole, and everything that happens does indeed always happen for a reason. I may not know all the inner workings of precisely how or why events come to pass as they do, but I can know that they are exactly as they were meant to be.

Sometimes, perhaps even very often, I will look at the ways of the world, and I will be quite confused, discouraged, disappointed, or angry at the state of affairs. Surely, this can’t be right? Was there a mistake or an oversight? Is it possible that God has overlooked this suffering? It is quite a big deal for me, but maybe it isn’t significant enough for Him to worry about?

That path of thinking will only lead me to my own ruin. It neglects the fact that where there is action, there is purpose, and where there is purpose, there is Intelligence. It ignores the necessity that all things must reduce to Absolute Being. It confuses my own finite imperfection with the rule of Infinite Perfection. Nothing is too small for that which has no limits and is bound by no distinctions.

It all works together, all the parts following their own natures while being joined to one Nature. This hardly negates the dignity of created things, but rather gives weight to their individual roles, in all their glorious diversity. Providence works its way in them and with them, not over them or against them.

A dear friend once told me that he didn’t think he could manage the faith in Providence I seemed to have. I was taken aback by this, because he clearly thought more of me than I could of myself, but also because my convictions, when I do manage to live up to them, are not only matters of faith.

Some people have told me, for all my life, that everything will work out right, to let go and to let God, to accept what I cannot, and should not, try to change. I was grateful for the advice, but I could not get beyond the sense that this was just an act of blind surrender. What reasons, beyond wishful thinking, might you have to support this?

It takes a certain humble openness to reason itself to uncover the reasons, to get over my own negativity. I don’t just believe in Providence; I know there is Providence, active in everything I do, in everything that comes to me. I know this by the effects I observe around me, and then thinking backwards to the cause. My trust is not unfounded. It is all of a One. 

Written in 11/2015