turning evil into good

St John Cassian talks to us today about good coming from evil in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says that a young man asked an old monk how we can condemn a murderer for killing a saint, if by killing him he sends him to heaven. The old monk says something that reminds me of The Silmarillion by Tolkien.

In that book, there is a very wise musical director, like the one seen in the pic above. The musician is directing a grand choir, and the music is beautiful. Then one day, one of the singers decides he wants all of the attention for himself. So he begins to sing out of sync with the other singers. But the wise director is so amazing that he works the music around the prideful singer and the music becomes even more beautiful than before. He works good out of evil.

And we know that God does this in our lives all of the time. We know this because the Bible tells us that "God works everything for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." So even the evil things that people do to try to hurt us, God works for good in our lives.

That's why we can trust Him even when people hurt us. Even if someone really has it in for us, and tries with all of their might to destroy us. They might succeed in killing our bodies, but God will even work that for our good. That's why we're free to love those people in return for their evil intentions. Because whatever they do, God is going to transform it into good in our lives anyway.

God, thanks for turning all evil into good. Help us to trust You to do just that in our lives.