Thinking About Evil, Dabbling in Heresy ; Is Evil a Verb Rather Than a Noun?

I had a philosophy teacher once, a religious sister, who gave me high marks, suggested I might want to "go into" philosophy or theology, and said that I was an original thinker.
(How the undergraduate mind preens under such a gaze....)
I was horrified when I was older to read something I had written in that class, on which she had given me thoughtful, constructive and mostly admiring feedback, and see that what I had written was heretical, outright, no-question-about-it heresy.
And she had no problem with it !!!!!!!!

So I just wanted to say upfront that I am wary when I have thoughts on certain matters.

But a question occurs to me, would it be correct to say that Evil is "not a noun"? that is, not a thing, for God Who is all good and hates nothing He has created, and therefore never created an evil thing,

Therefore, Evil cannot be a created, (or even, perhaps, imagined,) thing,  a noun - it must be a verb, must be action.

Evil must be the doing, not the thing itself.

So the devil, a created being, was not created as an evil thing, but instead chose to engage in evil actions, to feel prideful, to disobey, and to try to provoke such actions in other beings.

Likewise, we, human beings, are never evil, (though it sometimes seems so,) we are good, but we continually are given choices, and too often choose to act in ways that are evil.
Evil is always then, an action that is a Fail, (and sometimes, quite literally, a failure to act - act in a way that would be Good, that would further God's hopes for us.)

Judas, Stalin, that bully at school - no one is created to be bad, they are all created Good by God Who is Himself all Goodness, and they choose to walk down another path.

Does any of that make sense? is it anything even approaching correct?

Words of Wisdom for the Kitchen

"There is hardly a recipe or food that cannot be improved by the addition of bacon, cinnamon, chocolate, cream sherry, or grated parmesan -- or some combination thereof."

The Blood of the Covenant

From the Holy Father's Angelus address yesterday -

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our continuing catechesis on Saint Paul, we now consider his teaching on faith and works in the process of our justification.
Paul insists that we are justified by faith in Christ, and not by any merit of our own.
Yet he also emphasizes the relationship between faith and those works which are the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s presence and action within us.
The first gift of the Spirit is love, the love of the Father and the Son poured into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).
Our sharing in the love of Christ leads us to live no longer for ourselves, but for him (cf. 2 Cor 5:14-15); it makes us a new creation (cf. 2 Cor 5:17) and members of his Body, the Church. Faith thus works through love (cf. Gal 5:6).
Consequently, there is no contradiction between what Saint Paul teaches and what Saint James teaches regarding the relationship between justifying faith and the fruit which it bears in good works.

Rather, there is a different emphasis.

Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we are called to glorify him in our bodies (cf. 1 Cor 6:20), offering ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God. Justified by the gift of faith in Christ, we are called, as individuals and as a community, to treasure that gift and to let it bear rich fruit in the Spirit.

Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we are called to glorify him in our bodies...... isn't that beautiful?
Yes, our souls should magnify the Lord, but our bodies must as well, our entire beings.
(Yes, I know, that is a "duh" comment, just think of me as Jack Handy. I'm just trying to get it.)

In praise of laziness

There's no need to do many things that "must be done."
Himself frets about many health things, but the fact is, most minor medical problems are self-limiting.
My cold is going to make me miserable, run its course and go away whether I go to the doctor or not, whether I try the next new homeopathic remedy, or sip my usual tea, (substituting honey lemon and brandy for my usual milk and aspartame...)
I could wash my kitchen floor, but since a small construction project is going to make it filthy, and require replacing some of the tiles, really, what's the point?
(As some comic said, you dust your house, you're gonna hafta dust it again in a few months...)
This rumination is inspired by the fact that yesterday afternoon, really exhausted from the weekend liturgies, (it was the heat in the loft, more than any actual unusual exertion,) I knew I should have gotten out a ladder and a saw to trim the mulberry-bush-which-is-really-a-tree which had begun to threaten nearby wires and cables, but instead chose to read some articles I'd clipped and make myself a wine punch.
So lazy....
And there, today, the local utility company has sent a truck through the neighborhood, and they're doing it for me.
Maybe I'll have some more punch this afternoon.
An aside, (Scelata, EVERYTHING you write "is an aside." You need a "But I Digress" emoticon,) I remembered an actual unusual exertion.
Because we sang, at my instigation 4 years ago, a song that is not in any of our parish resources, I had to distribute 400 copies of the text to approximately 120 strategic locations about the nave before the first Mass of the weekend, then locate and straighten them up before each subsequent Mass, and then collect them after the last Mass, (and of course, make certain the the priest and deacon had their copies, which were inexplicably lost after several Masses, despite them having slipped them into the hymnals that never left the presider's chair... so they tell me. )
I am going straight to heaven when I die, because as I collected them, when asked if I had to collect them I did not say, no, the same flying monkeys who put them out'll take care of it.
And God bless the 5 year old (and his Mom,) who helped. (She does children's L of the W. Yet another example of the fact that the same 5% of the people do 95% of everything that needs to be done.)
Hmmmmmm.... or does it need to be done?

"With"

The sheep whisperer has a post about the funeral of Cardinal Lustiger with the most brilliant, pregnant bit of unidiomatic English...

A friend of his, (for whom English is a second language, presumably,) has translated a French report on the ceremony, and instead of the expected phrase, "converted to Catholicism," the kind translator tells us Aaron became Jean-Marie when he "converted with Catholicism."

Converted with Catholicism.

Isn't this felicitous, isn't this exactly right? Doesn't it speak perfectly to the conversion to which all men are all called? the ongoing conversion to which Catholics are most particularly called by virtue of the head-start we have been given?

We must all turn toward God.
And turning may not be the best description, as one can turn and remain we place.
We must turn toward and MOVE toward God.
And the path on which we move, the road on which we travel, the WAY is Christ Jesus.
Catholicism, the Church, His Bride is the means WITH which we may most easily, most completely, most surely do this.

Does everyone have to accept this or be condemned, must everyone believe as the Church teaches or be denied Salvation?

Not at all!

God is all-merciful.
In His mercy, He knows and allows for the fact that it is perfectly possible for us poor human beings to arrive at a destination without having an clear vision of what that destination is, without even knowing the name of the highway on which one has traveled.
Without knowing the Way.
Without knowing the Truth.
Without knowing the Life.

Ignorant though we be, we may yet arrive home safe and sound.

How often running around in the chevy has one thought oneself hopelessly lost, wasting time, perhaps even headed in the wrong direction, only to round a bend in the road and gratefully see, ah! there it is, just what I was looking for!

But when the Home-Owner has sent directions, has provided a map -- why leave the house without it?

And there's the "with."

We find our Way "with" the Church.
We convert, ever constantly, "with" Catholicism.

Thank You, Lord, for the Church with which to convert!

Interestingly, this post of Rocco's was right below a post that focusses on other little words: et...et. We Catholics are a people of Both/And

(Yeah, yeah, I know I'm blathering WAAAAAY outside any field of competence.... even shallow people are entitled to Deep Thoughts)