YES, indeed! And they come in all
shapes and sizes, good
and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, likeable and hateful. There are
surprises and moments when we seem to rot in expectation and still
things we long for don’t come.
Life can’t be restricted simply by our senses and
preferences, nor by our knowledge and wisdom. It gives us a lot more.
There are things that simply are beyond our control. We have to learn
to face life as it unravels by itself.
When we seem to be overwhelmed by trials, challenges,
tasks, pressures that can come anytime anywhere, I believe the
attitude to have and the reaction to make is to be calm, pray hard,
and while we do all we can, we have to learn to live a certain sense
of abandonment in the hands of God.
In those situations, I believe we just have to allow
ourselves to play in God’s game plan, in his abiding providence whose
designs are beyond reckoning, are way beyond comprehension and
appreciation.
We just have to allow the workings of grace to play out in
our life, loosening our tendency to be always in control of things.
These situations are privileged moments when we are made to expand and
deepen our understanding of things and our capabilities to deal with
whatever.
God’s ways are mysterious and inscrutable. He can write
straight with crooked lines. He never abandons us. He is always
intervening in our lives. And he knows how to draw good from evil,
such that even in our own blunders and stupidities, we would still
have reason to hope, and thus to say sorry, make amends and reconcile
with God and with others.
We have to be wary when we are tempted to lose hope
because of our mistakes and sins. You can be sure that that temptation
can only come from the devil who would be happy when we fall into
discouragement, or when we let our initial reaction of disappointment
and frustration to deteriorate into depression or to explode into
violence.
We just have to strengthen our faith that with God,
everything will always work out for the good. That’s what St. Paul
once reassured us: “To them that love God, all things work together
unto good…” (Rom 8,28)
It would not be wise to let ourselves sink in fear and
anxiety, or sadness, depression and bitterness. Like Christ, like all
the other saints, we just allow those uncontrollable things to happen,
no matter how bad they may be, because they will always have a good
purpose, even if at a given moment, we do not know it.
The template for this is the passion and death of Christ
on the cross. There we see how he allowed himself to suffer the most
painful and ignominious death there is. Being God, he could have
avoided it, but he just went through it.
He did it to obey the will of his Father and to go through
the unavoidable consequences of our sins. Of course, being God he
could have avoided it and could have carried out his mission of our
salvation in a painless way, but that would be like not addressing the
issue.
Besides, with his passion and death he is showing us how
we too can tackle the unavoidable consequences of sin, and that is
precisely to just abandon ourselves in the hands of God, without
losing faith, hope and love even if we continue to sin.
This contradicting predicament of ours to still believe,
hope and love God and others in spite of our sinfulness has been
vividly described by St. Paul who said: “I am delighted with the law
of God, according to the inward man. But I see another law in my
members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in
the law of sin, that is in my members.
“Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Therefore,
I myself, with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the
law of sin.” (Rom 7,22-25)
It’s worthwhile to meditate on these words if only to make
us understand our most intriguing predicament when we find ourselves
divided by two conflicting laws affecting us. We just have to learn to
suffer, like Christ, abandoning ourselves in the hands of God our
Father and allowing the working of grace to impact on us.
Let’s not allow our suffering to depress us. On the
contrary, it should strengthen our faith, hope and charity.
and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, likeable and hateful. There are
surprises and moments when we seem to rot in expectation and still
things we long for don’t come.
Life can’t be restricted simply by our senses and
preferences, nor by our knowledge and wisdom. It gives us a lot more.
There are things that simply are beyond our control. We have to learn
to face life as it unravels by itself.
When we seem to be overwhelmed by trials, challenges,
tasks, pressures that can come anytime anywhere, I believe the
attitude to have and the reaction to make is to be calm, pray hard,
and while we do all we can, we have to learn to live a certain sense
of abandonment in the hands of God.
In those situations, I believe we just have to allow
ourselves to play in God’s game plan, in his abiding providence whose
designs are beyond reckoning, are way beyond comprehension and
appreciation.
We just have to allow the workings of grace to play out in
our life, loosening our tendency to be always in control of things.
These situations are privileged moments when we are made to expand and
deepen our understanding of things and our capabilities to deal with
whatever.
God’s ways are mysterious and inscrutable. He can write
straight with crooked lines. He never abandons us. He is always
intervening in our lives. And he knows how to draw good from evil,
such that even in our own blunders and stupidities, we would still
have reason to hope, and thus to say sorry, make amends and reconcile
with God and with others.
We have to be wary when we are tempted to lose hope
because of our mistakes and sins. You can be sure that that temptation
can only come from the devil who would be happy when we fall into
discouragement, or when we let our initial reaction of disappointment
and frustration to deteriorate into depression or to explode into
violence.
We just have to strengthen our faith that with God,
everything will always work out for the good. That’s what St. Paul
once reassured us: “To them that love God, all things work together
unto good…” (Rom 8,28)
It would not be wise to let ourselves sink in fear and
anxiety, or sadness, depression and bitterness. Like Christ, like all
the other saints, we just allow those uncontrollable things to happen,
no matter how bad they may be, because they will always have a good
purpose, even if at a given moment, we do not know it.
The template for this is the passion and death of Christ
on the cross. There we see how he allowed himself to suffer the most
painful and ignominious death there is. Being God, he could have
avoided it, but he just went through it.
He did it to obey the will of his Father and to go through
the unavoidable consequences of our sins. Of course, being God he
could have avoided it and could have carried out his mission of our
salvation in a painless way, but that would be like not addressing the
issue.
Besides, with his passion and death he is showing us how
we too can tackle the unavoidable consequences of sin, and that is
precisely to just abandon ourselves in the hands of God, without
losing faith, hope and love even if we continue to sin.
This contradicting predicament of ours to still believe,
hope and love God and others in spite of our sinfulness has been
vividly described by St. Paul who said: “I am delighted with the law
of God, according to the inward man. But I see another law in my
members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in
the law of sin, that is in my members.
“Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Therefore,
I myself, with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the
law of sin.” (Rom 7,22-25)
It’s worthwhile to meditate on these words if only to make
us understand our most intriguing predicament when we find ourselves
divided by two conflicting laws affecting us. We just have to learn to
suffer, like Christ, abandoning ourselves in the hands of God our
Father and allowing the working of grace to impact on us.
Let’s not allow our suffering to depress us. On the
contrary, it should strengthen our faith, hope and charity.
No comments:
Post a Comment