With groanings too deep for words

I ALWAYS feel consoled everytime I read these words of St.

Paul in his Letter to the Romans. “The Spirit helps us in our

weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the

Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

(8,26)

            And two verses later, we read an even more consoling and

reassuring passage. “We know that all things work together for good to

those who love God, to those who have been called according to his

purpose.” (8,28)

            We know that all of us exist for a purpose designed by

God, our Creator and Father. No one exists by accident, even if by

human standards one may be considered born out of an accident, as in a

consequence of rape, for example. Therefore all of us are guided by

God’s providence where even our weaknesses, mistakes, sins, etc., can

somehow be taken advantage of to lead us to him.

            Of course, we have to do our part. We have to try our best

to know, love and serve God. But given our weakness, many times we do

not know how to relate ourselves to God. We may not know what to say

in our prayer, or worse, we may not even know how to pray at all.

            But God, in the Holy Spirit, will always come to the

rescue. As St. Paul said, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we

do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself

intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

            The working of the Holy Spirit in us is truly mysterious.

We can never fully capture the intricacies of his interventions in our

life. Even in those special, privileged instances when one goes

through extraordinary experiences like ecstasies and private

revelations, as experienced by some saints, no words, no human ways of

demonstration can fully describe them.

            But the Holy Spirit makes up for what we are unable even

to understand so that in the end we get to believe in something

revealed to us but which we could not fully understand, and we would

be led to where we should be.

            For this, we have to be born again, this time in the

Spirit and not just in the flesh. As Christ himself told Nicodemus,

“The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not

know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone

born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3,8)

            So it is possible that we may not even be aware that the

Spirit is shaping our life and directing our every step and act. As

long as we are born again in the Spirit and do not make any formal

rejection of the Spirit in our life, we may commit many mistakes in

our thinking and acting, but still the Spirit will guide us to where

we should be.

            That, I suppose, is what St. Paul meant when he said, “all

things work together for good to those who love God…” (Rom 8,28) God’s

providence works beyond our human understanding, even as he expects us

to know him well and understand his will and ways as much as we can.

            This realization, I believe, should calm down our

over-anxiousness about whether everyone is doing things right. Yes, we

have to follow certain laws, rules, policies, culture, lifestyles,

etc., all meant to guide us, but let’s remember that God’s inscrutable

ways often transcend them. They do not necessarily negate them, but

they simply go beyond them.

            Again, let’s just be game in this life. When we see errors

and sins in us and in others, we of course should try to correct them

when we realize them, but let’s never forget that in God’s providence,

they also serve a purpose! So, we should not worry too much.