WE will always have difficulties in
life. They are
unavoidable. They come with the limitations of our human nature and
aggravated by its condition of woundedness. Usually they come as small
disappointments and frustrations, little failures and setbacks we meet
everyday. All of them, more or less, manageable.
But they can also be big ones that can plunge us into
deep, long-running crises of fear, anger, anxiety, hatred and despair.
Cases of unsolvable predicaments, at least, humanly speaking.
We have to be ready for them and know not only how to deal
with them but also how to derive something good from them. In these
instances of the hard predicaments, for example, when we seem to be
at a loss as to what to do, we should just see at what God does, after
we have done all things possible to solve our problems.
We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to
learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. Yes, if we
have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for
us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. If we
are with God, we can always dominate whatever suffering can come our
way in the same manner that Christ absorbed all his passion and death
on the cross.
Let’s always remember that God, in his ineffable ways, can
also talk to us through these crosses. In fact, he can convey precious
messages and lessons through them. It would be good that we have a
theological attitude toward them, and be wary of our tendency to react
to them in a purely human way, based only on our senses and feelings
and on worldly trends.
We have to be quick to discern what God is telling us
through them. Let’s be quick to see in these problems golden
opportunities to receive more graces and other blessings from God.
These graces and blessings can deepen our love for God and neighbor,
enrich our understanding of things, occasion the birth and development
of virtues. They can truly do us a lot of good.
Thus, people who know how to suffer, bearing their
suffering with Christ, are effective in conveying to us sublime and
divine messages. They are the most credible people who can surprise us
with their deep insights and understanding of our life and the world
in general.
This was what Pope Francis intuited when he saw thousands
of people who withstood the rains and wind, the under and tiredness
just to be with him during his pastoral visit to our country. The
sight was so powerful that he was convinced, according to him, that
God was telling him something important.
On this, St. Paul has something interesting and relevant
to say. “In everything, God works for good with those who love him…If
God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but
have him up for us all, will he not give us all things with him?” (Rom
8,28ff)
It would be good if we have this conviction in our mind
and heart so as to avoid getting unnecessarily bothered by our
problems. Instead, we should see in them opportunities rather than
problems, blessings rather than misfortunes. And so we would be filled
with confidence and serenity, hope and optimism.
With this mind, we can easily be patient, knowing how to
unite our sufferings with the redemptive passion and death of Christ.
Our problems acquire great meaning, and can strike us as something to
welcome and to be thankful for, not something to run away from.
With this attitude toward our predicaments, we can easily
move on, without getting unduly entangled by them. We can easily ride
them out, never mind what effects and consequences they may have in
the other aspects of our life.
Our problems can actually lead us to live our life with
God, which is what proper to us. Understood in this way, our problems
are actually God’s blessings for us. No wonder, saints and holy men
and women through the ages have considered the cross as something
lovable, not hateful.
We certainly have to make some adjustments in our
understanding and attitude towards our unavoidable problems. Our
attitude towards them should go beyond what our senses, feelings and
our other human powers can handle. We have to allow God’s ways to work
in our life.
There we will see the beauty of the cross, for which
Christ was sent to us!
unavoidable. They come with the limitations of our human nature and
aggravated by its condition of woundedness. Usually they come as small
disappointments and frustrations, little failures and setbacks we meet
everyday. All of them, more or less, manageable.
But they can also be big ones that can plunge us into
deep, long-running crises of fear, anger, anxiety, hatred and despair.
Cases of unsolvable predicaments, at least, humanly speaking.
We have to be ready for them and know not only how to deal
with them but also how to derive something good from them. In these
instances of the hard predicaments, for example, when we seem to be
at a loss as to what to do, we should just see at what God does, after
we have done all things possible to solve our problems.
We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to
learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. Yes, if we
have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for
us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. If we
are with God, we can always dominate whatever suffering can come our
way in the same manner that Christ absorbed all his passion and death
on the cross.
Let’s always remember that God, in his ineffable ways, can
also talk to us through these crosses. In fact, he can convey precious
messages and lessons through them. It would be good that we have a
theological attitude toward them, and be wary of our tendency to react
to them in a purely human way, based only on our senses and feelings
and on worldly trends.
We have to be quick to discern what God is telling us
through them. Let’s be quick to see in these problems golden
opportunities to receive more graces and other blessings from God.
These graces and blessings can deepen our love for God and neighbor,
enrich our understanding of things, occasion the birth and development
of virtues. They can truly do us a lot of good.
Thus, people who know how to suffer, bearing their
suffering with Christ, are effective in conveying to us sublime and
divine messages. They are the most credible people who can surprise us
with their deep insights and understanding of our life and the world
in general.
This was what Pope Francis intuited when he saw thousands
of people who withstood the rains and wind, the under and tiredness
just to be with him during his pastoral visit to our country. The
sight was so powerful that he was convinced, according to him, that
God was telling him something important.
On this, St. Paul has something interesting and relevant
to say. “In everything, God works for good with those who love him…If
God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but
have him up for us all, will he not give us all things with him?” (Rom
8,28ff)
It would be good if we have this conviction in our mind
and heart so as to avoid getting unnecessarily bothered by our
problems. Instead, we should see in them opportunities rather than
problems, blessings rather than misfortunes. And so we would be filled
with confidence and serenity, hope and optimism.
With this mind, we can easily be patient, knowing how to
unite our sufferings with the redemptive passion and death of Christ.
Our problems acquire great meaning, and can strike us as something to
welcome and to be thankful for, not something to run away from.
With this attitude toward our predicaments, we can easily
move on, without getting unduly entangled by them. We can easily ride
them out, never mind what effects and consequences they may have in
the other aspects of our life.
Our problems can actually lead us to live our life with
God, which is what proper to us. Understood in this way, our problems
are actually God’s blessings for us. No wonder, saints and holy men
and women through the ages have considered the cross as something
lovable, not hateful.
We certainly have to make some adjustments in our
understanding and attitude towards our unavoidable problems. Our
attitude towards them should go beyond what our senses, feelings and
our other human powers can handle. We have to allow God’s ways to work
in our life.
There we will see the beauty of the cross, for which
Christ was sent to us!
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