Evening star., 1941-06-30
Excerpts FromPope's sAddress
Pontiff Declares Worlds Sufferines Will Be
Followed by Era of Peace ond Hope

Fe0Ce 0n0 nope
view of a few years; God has before
him the all-embracing panorama
of the ages.
They think of human events in
relation to their proyimate causes
and immediate effects; God sees
them in their remote causes and
judges them in their remote effects.
They stop to single out this Or that
particular responsible hand: God
sees whole hidden complicated
convergence of responsibilities be-
cause his exalted providence does
not exclude the free choice of evil
and good in human selections.
They would have immediate JUS
tice and are scandalized at the
ephemeral power of the enemies of
God, the sufferings and humilia-
tons of the innocent permitted by
God; but Our Heavenly Father, who
in the light of His eternity en-
braces, penetrates and dominates
the viciSsitudes of time as much as
lliC cOlCIlC pCdIC vi lIlt
ages, God who is the Blessed Trinity,
full of compassion for the weak
nesseS, ignorance and impatience of
men, but who loves men too much
for their faults to turn Him from
the ways of His wisdom and love,
continues and will continue to make
His sun to rise upon the good and
bad and to rain upon the just and
the unjust Matthew v45) to guide
their childlike steps with firmness
and kindness if only they will let
themselves be led by him and have
trust in the power and wisdom of
His love for them.
Defines Trust in God.
What does it mean to trust in
God?
Trust in God means the abandon
ment of oneself with all the force
of the will sustained by grace and
love, in spite of all the doubts
suggested by appearances to the
contrary, to the wisdom, the in
finite love of God. 1t means be-
l1evlng that nothing in this world
escapes His Providence. whether in
the universal or in the particular
order: that nothing great or small
happens which is not foreseen.
wished or permitted, directed al
ways by Providence to its exalted
ENDS which in this world are always
inspired by love for men. 1t means
believing that God can permit at
times here below for some time
preemlnence of atheism and of
lmplety, the lamentable obscuring
OF sense of justice, the violation
OF law, the tormenting of innocent.
peaceful, undefended, helpless men.
1t means believing that God at
times thus lets trials befall indi-
vlduals and peoples, trials of which
the malice of men is the instrument
in a design of justice directed to-
wards the punishment of sin, to-
wards purifying persons and peoples
through the expiations of this
present life and bringing them
back by this way to Himself: but
1t means believing at the same
time that this justice always re-
mains here below the justice of a
father inspired and dominated by
love.
However cruel may seem the hand
of the Divine Surgeon when He cuts
with the lancet into the live flesh,
it is always an active love that guides
and drives it in and only the good
Of men and peoples makes Him in
terfere to cause such sorrow. 1t
means believing finally that the
fierce intensity of the trial, like the
triumph of evil, will endure even
here below only for fixed time and
not longer, that the hour of God
will come, the hour of mercy, the
hour of holy rejoicing, the hour of
the new canticle of liberation, the
hour of exultation and of JOY Psalm
95D, the hour in which. after having
let the hurricane loose for a moment
on humanity, the all-powerful hand
of the Heavenly Father with an
imperceptible motion will detain it
and diSperse it and, by ways little
known to the mind or to the hopes
of men, justice, calm and peace will
be restored to the nations.
We know we'll that the most Sc
rious difficulty for those who have
not correct sense of the divine
comes from seeing so many innocent
victims involved in suffering by the
same tempest which overwhelms sim
ners. Men never remain indifferent
when the hurricane which tears up
the great trees also cuts down the
lowly little flower which opened at