God's Will- Free Will- Predestination

A question about the title of this post was asked at our first meeting. I made reference to this in an earlier post. At the request of a reader, I am posting an answer to this question:

If God knows what we are going to do, then how is that not predestination and what does it do to our free will?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the following about free will:

1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

So then... we are each given the privilege to shape our own life. And out of complete love for his creation, God does not impede in the process of it. So what is God's will? I believe that God has a dream dreamt long before our earthly existence for each one of us. It is a dream of being who God is in the world. And so, every heartbeat of our existence and every decision we make should go toward this end. In the Confessions, Saint Augustine writes, "Our hearts were made for you [God], and they are restless until they find their rest in you." Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica writes, "So, what is the purpose of the universe? God freely created the universe to manifest His goodness as far as possible..."

God's knowledge of our future events does not mean that God has predestined us. Omniscience and predestination are two quite different concepts. God is omniscient because as God, God knows everything in the past, present and future all at once in the presence. But just because God knows what our decisions are going to be, it does not mean that God has planned it that way or that he is responsible for our actions. Consider this analogy. A weatherman can predict the rain, but the weatherman is not responsible for making it rain. Knowledge does not necessarily imply responsibility for the cause.

Do predestination and free will meet? No. We are predestined in so far to love and be loveable, BUT, we have the responsibility and choice to live in that manner or not-- equally important is how we live it out.

I hope this post helps answer or clarify any questions that are lingering about this issue. Comments are welcome and appreciated.