What does it mean to face trial, loss, and even evil without doubt? In today’s readings, the Church speaks with three voices across centuries to answer that question. In The Shepherd of Hermas, the vision of the terrifying beast reveals that coming tribulation is real, overwhelming, and unavoidable—but not ultimate; deliverance comes not through escape, but through steadfast faith that refuses to doubt God even when destruction seems imminent. Augustine, in The Confessions, brings that trial inward, recounting the shattering grief of losing his closest friend and the way sorrow exposed how deeply his heart had fastened itself to a creature rather than to God; his suffering becomes a mirror revealing the disorder of love that only God can heal. Aquinas then provides the theological clarity beneath both experiences, explaining that God knows evil not as a thing He causes or delights in, but as a privation known through His perfect knowledge of the good, and that God knows singular events, losses, and trials—not vaguely or generally, but distinctly, eternally, and without confusion. Together, these readings move from vision, to wound, to wisdom—showing that faith, grief, and divine knowledge are not separate paths, but one coherent journey toward trusting the God who knows all things without being darkened by them.

Readings: The Shepherd of Hermas — Vision 4–5

Augustine, The Confessions — Book 4, Chapter 4 (Sections 7–9)

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica — Part 1, Question 14 (Articles 10–12 Combined)

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