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Please Note: because the letter of our visitor is very long and full of questions, I wanted to reply to each point directly, instead of writing all the answers at the end in one letter.

The visitor’s writing (Marco) is the one written in “roman”, mine (the answer) is the one in italic.

Dear Father Angelo,

please allow me to enclose a short writing with some of my doubts and questions.

Almighty God created a perfect world, but if evil and the devil existed, the “Creation System” was not perfect.

God did not create the devil, but He created the Angels, some of whom have perverted.

Man was free to choose between good and evil, to accept or to reject the Creator, why did he choose evil?

We should not forget that Adam and Eve have chosen the good for some time.

Then they later succumbed to a temptation to which, however, they were free not to adhere to.

Maybe the good and God did not appear so perfect:  I mean the perfect man, if he had been as smart as a Seraph, he would have chosen God and the perfection, it seems strange that he didn’t make the right choice.  It follows that either creation was not so perfect or that man had not been created so “divine”.  Therefore, conceived in a limited, imperfect and foolish manner.  A perfect creature cannot fail to recognize and love the perfection of God and His creation.

We must distinguish:

As to their essence (person), Adam and Eve were perfect, in the sense that, under their ontologic profile (of being), they lacked nothing.

But, as for their personality, they were in the process of perfection.

The meaning of our presence in this world is precisely in this timeline.  God wanted us to become architects and protagonists of our eternal destiny.

In this timeline, Adam and Eve were not perfect.  They were called to acquire perfection, which is realized in union with God.

Anyway, something wrong must have been there from the beginning, in God or in man as His creation.

Your conclusion is wrong, because the premises are wrong.

I conclude that, if God is perfection and love, the creation is magnificent and man created in God’s image and likeness, therefore able to have with Him a perfect communion, he can’t rebel.

The conclusion is wrong because the communion was not yet perfect, if by perfect we mean incapable of growth and difinitive.

Absurdly, in a world perfectly created even freedom is lacking.  In fact, there is perfect communion of intentions and views, but there is no possibility for an alternative choice or rejection.

The perfection you are talking about is that of Paradise.  There, our freedom will find fulfillment.  Similar to one who is engaged. As long as he is engaged, he is free to get married.  But, once he is married, he is no longer free to get married because he has fulfilled his freedom.  This means that freedom is in the order of means.

Man is not free with respect to his own purpose, which is happiness.  In any case, he wants it.

The apple is an allegorical symbol, that indicates a choice between good and evil, that is the rebellion and the rejection toward God.

But, in what sense man has rebelled to God?  Personally, I did not make any rational and well thought out choice, indeed, I cannot even choose since I do not know what God wants from me and not knowing if He exists or not.

Meanwhile, the Sacred Scriptures do not talk about apples, but about the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

These words are full of meaning and remind us of what kind of sin the original sin actually was.  Furthermore, it is true that you did not commit the original sin, but you came out– just like all of us did – from a spring that in the meantime has become polluted.

I feel that I do not possess the sufficient elements to accomplish such an important choice that will determine the eternal destiny of my life.  Do I have to decide my eternity on a few vague writings, often conflicting, or on arbitrary testimonies of people who lived in remote times?

It is not true that you do not have the sufficient elements to accomplish such an important choice:

“Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.  As a result, they have no excuse” (Rm 1, 19-20).

And also: “ Foolish by nature were all who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan.

Instead either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water, or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these;  for the original source of beauty fashioned them.

For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen” (Wisdom 13, 1-5).

How come God never manifests Himself in His splendor?  Because my freedom would disappear, the believers would answer!

Yes, it is true.  Because seeing Him in His splendor is the same thing as being transferred in eternity, to Paradise.

But God wants communion with Him to be free, that is, full of love.  For this reason He has placed us here on earth, first.  So that we may love Him.

In Paradise, Adam the perfect man rejected God despite having plenty of evidence of His existence and living in perfect communion with Him.  Therefore, why do the men on this earth have to choose their eternal destiny only on a few vague and conflicting clues?  God should manifest Himself in His splendor and love, so that the modern man, just like Adam did, can make his own choice in total freedom and with good reasoning.

As I already told you, the communion was not perfect because it was subject to its growth and it was not definitive.

Adam’s alleged fault has passed from father to son, and it seems unfair to me that the sins of the fathers befall on their children endlessly like a waterfall.

It is not the fault that was passed, but the penalty.

A drunkard or a drug addict can pass on to his kids some penalties, but he does not communicate his faults, which are always personal and non-transferable.

(I repeat, on children who can only count on few clues, while the fathers had full knowledge and communion with Divinity)

Adam was able to refuse God, perfectly knowing Him, so he made a deliberate choice by his own free will, while the modern man must rely on assumptions.

It seems clear that the manifestation of God in His splendor would not compromise the modern man’s free will, since it did not force Adam’s, who made the rejection while living in communion with God.  So, why does this deafening silence, on the Divinity part, persist?

I am not going to repeat to you anymore that Adam did not have that perfect communion with God that is identified with beatific vision.

His knowledge of God was still based on faith.

Moreover, God’s silence is not deafening.

Only those who are deaf do not hear the language of God.

For this reason Saint Augustine, in light of the biblical passages that I reported to you above, said: “Yea also heaven, and earth, and all that therein is, behold, on every side they bid me love Thee; nor cease to say so unto all, that they may be without excuse”  (Rm 1, 20) (Confessions, X, 6,8)

I stop right here.  There is already plenty of it.

For the other answers to your questions, please, click on the search engine of our site.  We put it there on purpose.

As you can see, often you start with wrong statements.  It is obvious, then, that you are unable to conclude.

I am grateful if you will have the time to answer me.

I send you my best regards, thank you.

I wish you a fruitful research, and with this wish, accompanied by my prayers, I bless you.

Father Angelo