Video – Fr Maximilian – The Cornerstone #34: God’s Unchanging Plan

By December 2, 2007April 21st, 2008The Cornerstone

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Ave Maria!

"The overall 'Plan' [of God] is always the same, but [because of sin] the 'plan' changes."

How can God's plan for all creation be the same but not the same? This statement from the followers of Bl. Jon Duns Scotus seems to be a contradiction. In this episode of The Absolute Primacy of Christ, Fr. Maximilian unravels this mystery by using 2 diagrams from his book to illustrate how God's "Plan" with a large "P" - meaning the Absolute Predestination of Jesus and Mary - was always the same, but His "plan" with a small "p" was altered, or changed, because of Adam's sin.

Ave Maria!

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Join the discussion 4 Comments

  • Joe says:

    Hi Father Maximilian, I have a question about the Franciscan Thesis and thus your video series in general.

    If we are all predestined before sin in Christ, does that mean that we achieve the level of glory God has destined for us before sin or does the conquest of sin and evil through suffering merit us in Christ a ‘greater’ degree of grace and glory than we would have if we had never suffered or or overcome evil in Christ.

    It seems like Christ’s glory would have been the same, because of the hypostatic union, but i am wondering if it is the same for us.

    Thank you for the great series

    Ave Maria!

    Joe

  • Br. Karl says:

    Ave Maria Joe,

    Sorry for the long time in responding, but Fr. Maximilian has been missioned to a contemplative house in Italy, so he won’t be able to respond to questions. I will email the vlog master and see if he can an FI who is knowledgable enough to answer your question.

    Thanks for the post and a Blessed Christmas,
    Br. Karl in Maine, NY

  • fr maximilian mary says:

    Ave Maria! Joe, I’ll try to post a response for you in the next day or so. God bless…

  • fr maximilian mary says:

    Ave Maria!

    Dear Joe,

    Obviously you’ve absorbed the insights of Blessed John Duns Scotus, or you’d never have been able to throw such a theological zinger at me! Looks like I might get your question done this morning…

    The thomistic position, of course, is that the present economy of grace is better, and that’s what they mean when they say “Felix culpa???. For the thomist, thanks to Adam’s sin and God’s mercy, we can attain a higher glory in Christ than if Adam had not sinned. Clearly this is not the Franciscan position since, with Bl. Scotus, we hold that there is only one economy of grace willed by God—through, with and in Christ sin or no sin.

    My hunch is that without original sin we would have been better disposed to cooperate with God’s grace and thus able to merit more readily the greatest possible glory for God in our souls (like Mary Immaculate). Think about it… pursuing holiness in Christ Jesus with the maternal assistance and presence of Mary’s Immaculate Heart and NO CONCUPISCENCE!!! To what heights we could arrive! But alas, we find ourselves in a fallen state and in a fallen world.

    Given the present economy of salvation in Christ after the fall which includes both our elevation to “become partakers of the divine nature??? (cf. 2 Pt 1:4, also called divinization/deification) and our redemption from sin, suffering becomes an “exponential” source of merit. Anything done with love for God has merit; but nothing reveals love in this fallen world more than sacrifice. When we look at Christ Crucified with the nails through His hands and feet, at Our Lady of Sorrows with the seven painful swords penetrating her heart, and at the great Saints who suffered in union with the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (take St. Francis of Assisi, St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe and St. Pio of Pietrelcina as a few examples), then we see that there is almost no limit to the glory we can offer to God through, with and in Christ our Redeemer! In fact the trials and tribulations of the spiritual combat in this fallen state served only to increase the merit of the Saints and will do the same for us if we persevere to the end in corresponding to divine grace.

    I am not in a position to say, like the thomists, that we’re better off after the fall in terms of the glory we can offer to God; but given the present economy after the fall the only limit I can see to the glory we can offer Christ and through Him to the entire Trinity is that set by Mary Coredemptrix—no one can compare with her, and yet Holy Mother Church encourages us to imitate her and unite ourselves to her as the Model and Mother of the Church.

    “Stay tuned,??? as they say, I’ll be speaking about Mary’s role in our spiritual life for the rest of the series.

    Blessed and Merry Christmas! Venite adoremus…

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