Todd Marinovich was a “Can’t Miss” National Football League (NFL) prospect. Todd’s Father, Marv, a former NFL player, began grooming his son for greatness from the time the boy was in utero, planning the ultimate diet and exercise program for Todd’s expectant Mother. After Todd was born, Marv began stretching exercises at one month of age. Todd’s diet was strictly controlled through his entire high school career. Marv kept a football in his son’s crib and had him constantly engaged in various exercise drills throughout his developmental years. He was born, and raised to play quarterback in the NFL.
But there was one problem. Todd possessed free will. This meant that regardless of the skills imparted on Todd by his Dad, Todd still had to choose how, or if, he would apply his talents in a way that could eventually lead to football greatness. While his high school and college careers were stellar, cracks in his decision making process began to show up even during secondary school. He began to use Marijuana before class with a group of friends. He would routinely miss school and practices. His talents took him to the University of Southern California where his new found freedom led to increased drug usage and clashes with his coach. In spite of these personal failings and poor decisions, his innate talent resulted in being drafted into the NFL in 1991. By 1994 he was out of football, the result of continued drug addiction and conflict with coaches.
Todd was given skills by HIS Father to succeed at football. The destination for Marv was success in the NFL. So, in a sense, Todd Marinovich was predestined (destination decided upon) from the beginning of Todd’s existence to be a star quarterback in the NFL. But, and this is a big but, Todd had the freedom to decide whether to accept the gift that his Father gave him.
In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we see Paul and Barnabas speaking at a synagogue in Antioch. The week before this passage they had been speaking at the same synagogue and had drawn so much interest that the crowds filled the synagogue the following week. They rebuked the Jews for turning their backs on Jesus and, therefore God’s plan:
“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first,
but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.”
God provided the graces to the Jewish people to achieve eternal life just as Todd Marinovich’s Father provided him the skills to succeed at football. Free will given to Todd was also given to the Jews in Antioch to accept or reject the gifts provided to them. But in the reading we see that the Gentiles of Antioch chose differently. They were delighted to hear the message of salvation spoken to them by Paul and Barnabas. They were also predestined for eternal life but in their case they accepted the gift, the grace, given to them by God:
All who were destined for eternal life came to believe,
and the word of the Lord continued to spread through the whole region.
The question can then be asked that, if God is all knowing, he knows what we will decide so what is the point of our existence. However, we must understand that God see time differently than we do. We see time as linear. One thing happening after the other. So we can see consequences of our choices and therefore free will still determines our fate. Our choices, and the results, are real. But for God, He sees time at once. Past, present and future all occur NOW for God. So while God knows the outcome of our choices he leaves it up to us as to what those choices will be. Even if Marv Marinovich knew ahead of time that his son would choose the wrong friends that would adversely affect his chance of playing in the NFL, Todd did not know that outcome and his choices still had consequences for him to observe while not knowing the final result.
Now, where the theology gets sticky is this. Does God predestine everyone? Meaning does God intend for EVERYONE to achieve eternal life with the end result being determined by free will choices along the way. Or does God already know who will accept Him and predestined only those? The Catechism of the Catholic Church is firm in its teaching that God does not predestine anyone to go to hell. The individual makes that choice by denying God. Paragraph 600 of the Catechism states:
To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace:
He knows each person’s responses to His offer of grace (to help draw us closer to Him) and these responses figure into God’s plan of predestination for each of us.
In the end, none of us knows the end. We don’t see what God sees. So what are we to do? Jesus makes it easy for us when he states:
‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)
