Where divine providence would take us

WE have to be ready for wherever divine providence would
take us. We have to be open to it all the time. Even as we make our
plans and pursue them truly as our own, we should not forget that
nothing in our life is actually outside the providence of God who can
adapt himself to us, even in our worst situations and predicaments,
and still lead us to himself.

            The only thing to remember is that God is always around
and is actually intervening and directing our life to him. That is
part of his omnipotence which he exercises both from all eternity and
in time since our creation and all the way to the end of time.

            We need to be open to his providence, because even if God
is 100% responsible for our life, we too, in a manner of speaking, are
also 100% responsible for our life. Since we have been created in
God’s image and likeness, we cannot help but have our life immersed
also in God’s life. We need to learn to live our life with him as
consciously and as freely as possible with him.

            But we have to be ready for wherever God’s providence
would take us because God leads us in very mysterious ways. Remember
what Christ told Peter: “When you were young, you girded yourself and
walked where you would. But when you are old, you will stretch out
your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not
wish to go.” (Jn 21,18)

            There will be things in our life that will be beyond our
human notice, and much less, our human control. We have to trust God’s
providence even if things look terrible, impossible, or inhuman when
judged simply by human standards.

            Let us remember the story of Abraham who was asked to
offer his only son, Isaac, in sacrifice to God. That trust Abraham had
in God’s will won him the privilege of being the father of all
nations. God always has a purpose for everything that happens in our
life, or can derive good from whatever evil we commit.

            There are actually many mysteries in our life that can
surpass our capacity to comprehend and, much less, to cope with,
including extreme evil. But let’s always remember that where sin or
evil has abounded, the grace of God has abounded even more.

            Our Catechism teaches us why God allows evil to happen and
how such evil can occasion a lot of good. “He permits evil to take
place because he respects the freedom of his creatures and,
mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it.” (CCC 311)

            “In time we can discover that God in his almighty
providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a
moral evil, caused by his creatures: ‘It was not you,’ said Joseph to
his brothers, ‘who sent me here, but God… You meant evil against me;
but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should
be kept alive.’

            “From the greatest moral evil ever committed—the rejection
and murder of God’s only Son, caused by the sins of all men—God, by
his grace that ‘abounded all the more,’ brought the greatest of goods:
the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil
never becomes a good.” (CCC 312)

            It’s good to keep this truth of our faith always in mind
so that whatever happens in our life, as long as we try to be with
Christ, we can manage, with his grace and our effort, and with the
company of saints, to tackle it meritoriously.

            We have to learn to be sport and fearless in our life. Let
us avoid simply understanding and reacting to things from a purely
human point of view. Let us assume the mind of God as manifested and
enabled in us by Christ.

            We should not be afraid to pursue the thread of our life
especially when it unfolds in a way that is beyond our control. That
would simply mean that it is God leading us the way. We should just
follow it like a good journalist who pursues his lead when it happens
and where it happens. He is only interested in finishing his news
story irrespective of how it turns.

            This can only happen if we have a strong faith in God, an
equally strong hope in his will, and a burning charity of his ways. We
can be sure that in spite of difficulties and suffering, everything
will only work out for the good.

From God’s point of view

NOWADAYS, we are seeing a lot of people depending solely
on their senses, judgments and reasoning in tackling all their
temporal affairs with hardly any reference to God’s will and plans.

            Obviously, for Christian believers, all these senses and
human intelligence and will are God-given and, as such, can help us
tremendously in understanding things. They indeed have to be used to
the full.

            But they are not meant to be our ultimate recourse. If not
inspired by God, if there is no deliberate effort to relate them to
God’s will and plans, they can come out with fantastic insights and
ideas, but still miss the most important point.

            We need to be strongly reminded that God is our Creator.
As such, he is the author, foundation, law and standard of all
reality. Everything has to be referred to him. He ought to be the
inspiration and goal of everything, because nothing is true, good and
beautiful unless it is related to him.

            Our current problem is that we seem to be steadily making
ourselves our own God, our own creator, author, foundation, law and
standard of practically everything. God has become irrelevant in our
life.

            With our increasing capability to master and dominate
things, what with all our technological advances, etc., we are slowly
shifting from simply being stewards of creation, acting in the name of
God our Creator, to being God himself.

            We seem to be replaying the story of the tower of Babel,
complete with its devastating effects. One wonders why, for example,
in spite of our tremendous communication technologies and other
political and social maneuvers aimed at unity, we seem to have not
only legitimate diversity, but rather more misunderstanding,
conflicts, intolerance and hatred.

            We seem to have only an appearance of unity and civility,
but deep inside many people’s heart reign anger and envy and all the
other things that contribute to build up a towering and sometimes
exploding tension.

            We have to learn to assume the mind of God, as shown to us
in Christ and handed down to us through the different
instrumentalities of the Church. This may sound presumptuous at the
beginning, but a closer look at this claim will reveal a solid basis
for it.

            We have been made in the image and likeness of God,
children of his through his grace that he gives to us in abundance.
Even if we sinned and continue to sin, God is ever ready to forgive
us.

            In short, he is giving us everything that we need to be
what we ought to be, that is, children of his, who think and act with
freedom in complete consonance to his mind and will.

            It’s a pity that many people, especially the young, seem
now to be alienated from God. They think and act as if they are
strangers to God, and end up left to their own devices. They see,
understand and react to things based more on their own ideas,
feelings, moods and other worldly conditionings. And so they miss a
lot of things.

            If their antics click with the world, then they can be
happy with an ephemeral joy that is prone to vanity, pride, arrogance
and greed. And if their antics don’t click, then they have no other
recourse but to fall into a web of sadness, depression, etc.

            We have to understand that with God, we have everything
that we need to tackle all the situations of our life, whether they be
good or bad. With God, all our earthly affairs, our ups and downs,
have their meaning and can acquire not only their legitimate temporal
value, but their ultimate eternal value. With God, even our human
defeats and losses can turn into victories in the end.

            We have to know more and more about the mind and will of
God as revealed to us in his word in Sacred Scripture and elaborated
faithfully and authoritatively by the Church Magisterium.

            Let’s remember what the Letter to the Hebrews say about
God’s word: It is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and
marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
(4,12)

            We should make it a habit to regularly read and meditate
on the word of God. More than anything else, it is the one that would
give us the whole picture of things. Our common sense, our judgments
and reasoning, our scientific knowledge and other worldly sources of
knowledge should have God as their inspiration and end.

In the company of saints and angels

WE should be most aware of this reality offered by our
Christian faith, and take advantage of it as much as we can. If we
follow our faith, we know that we are all in communion, forming one
body, one family, one people in Christ. It is Christ, with his
redemptive work for us, that makes this thing happen.

            Distance, death and whatever differences we have actually
do not take away our communion with one another. In fact, if we use
our faith in tackling these situations, they can only heighten our
sense of communion.

            This communion involves everyone in the whole creation of
God, and especially those who already are in heaven, i.e., the saints,
and even the angels. We are even in communion also with those souls
who are still purifying themselves in purgatory.

            We need to process this truth of our faith slowly and
constantly, so that it would sink into our very own consciousness and
serve as a guiding principle in our life, giving shape and direction
to the way we think, understand, see and react to things.

            In this way, we avoid being simply at the mercy of our own
estimation of things which, even if they can be very brilliant and
incisive, would never reach the ultimate and mysterious dimensions of
the reality proper to us.

            In this way, our thoughts, desires and everything else in
our life would assume a spiritual character and a supernatural tone
proper to us as image and likeness of God, children of his through
Christ. We somehow would know how not to be completely carried away by
merely material and earthly values, even if they do have their
legitimate role to play in our life.

            An abiding sense of confidence and security would be with
us if we are truly aware of the fact that we are in the company of
saints and angels. When temptations come and when our weaknesses start
to stir up, we somehow would know how to handle them, how to resist
them. We would never feel alone, abandoned, at our wits’ end, and left
to our own devices.

            Being aware of their company would remind, edify and
inspire us of their goodness, their generosity and heroism, and all
their virtues like fortitude, spirit of sacrifice, their fidelity even
in the face of martyrdom, poverty, obedience, chastity, etc. They are
actually like well-lit and well-paved paths to know God’s will and
ways.

            Our minds and hearts will be filled with many good things
that are proper to us, preventing us from falling into self-indulgent
thoughts and desires. We would be encouraged to give ourselves to
others, to fight with more vigor against temptations. We would be
taught how to see things through the eyes of God.

            It would be good if we develop a certain devotion to them,
getting to know them through the many biographical writings about them
as well as their numerous writings that many of them left behind.
These writings are real gems of wisdom.

            We, for example, should savor the most maternal love of
our Lady, our most powerful intercessor. We should feel the fatherly
care of St. Joseph for us. We can easily identify ourselves with the
bumbling apostles who, in spite of their limitations, were simple and
faithful to the Lord.

            We should be inspired by the examples of St. Augustine,
St. Ambrose, St. Thomas Aquinas, and many, many others who, with the
help of grace, made full use of their intellectual and spiritual
powers to mine the rich deposit of our faith, the revealed truths,
producing a great wealth of theological knowledge that is most helpful
to all of us.

            We should be edified by the examples of St. Therese of the
Child Jesus, St. Josemaria Escriva, and many others who teach us how
we can find sanctity through the little ordinary things of each day.

            Almost everyday, the Church liturgy presents to us the
example of saints. Let’s try to take advantage of these to form and
solidify our Christian and spiritual life, cultivating the proper
attitudes and virtues.

            As to the angels, we should realize that they are there to
help us. They can serve as our messenger, our security guard, our
errand boy, etc. Let’s see to it that we know how to deal with them.
Let’s not ignore them. They are there to do our bidding.

            With the saints and angels, we would know how to react
with God to any situation and predicament. See what they can do for
us! And we would just ignore them?