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The Rôle of Evil THE advent or the presence of evil upon earth
has introduced certain factors in human life that have enriched it, increased
even its value. Certain experiences would not have been there, intimate and
revelatory experiences, but for this Dark Shadow. One can, of course, conceive
a line of growth and development in which it is all light and delight, everything
is good and for the good. But then a whole domain of experience and
realisation would have been missed. There are certain experiences that one
would not like not to have had at all, even though that may mean paying and
paying heavily. Evil is evil, no doubt; it is not divine and
it is not an illusion. It is a real blot on the fair face of creation. Its
existence cannot be justified in the sense that it is the right thing and has
to be welcomed and maintained, since it forms part of the universal symphony.
Not even in the sense that it is a test and a trial set by the Divine for the
righteous to prove their merit. It has not been put there with a set purpose,
but that once given, it has been the occasion of a miracle, it offered the
opportunity for the manifestation of something unique, great and grandiose,
marvellous and beautiful. The presence of evil moved the Divine – Giustizia masse il
mio alto Fattorel¹ – and Grace was born. He
descended, the Aloof and the Transcendent, in all his love and compassion down
into this vale of tears: he descended straight into our midst without halting
anywhere in the infinite gradation that marks the distance between the highest
and the lowest, he descended from the very highest into the very lowest,
demanding nothing, asking for no condition whatsoever from the soul in
Ignorance, from ¹ Dante: Divina
Commedia, Inferno, Canto III. 4 "Justice
moved my great maker"
Page – 181 the earth under the grip of evil. Thus it was
that Life lodged itself in the home of death, Light
found its way into the far cavern of obscurity and inconscience, and Delight
bloomed in the core of misery. Hope was lit, a flame rising from the nether
gloom towards the Dawn. But for the spirit of denial we would not have seen
this close and intimate figure of the gracious Mother. This is the divine miracle that has been
vouchsafed to man, the spectacle of the Divine himself becoming an earthly
creature, wearing as his own body of flesh and blood this mortal frame of pain
and suffering and ignorance, of obscurity and incapacity and falsehood. This
is the calvary he has accepted, the sacrifice of his
divinity he agreed to in order that the undivine too may gracefully serve the
Divine, be taken up and transmuted into the reality from which it fell, of
which it is an aberration. The glory and beauty of this gesture one
would not like not to have witnessed and experienced and shared. Page – 182
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