God always provides

INDEED, God always provides for all our needs, foremost of which is our own salvation, our own sanctification, the achievement of our ultimate goal which is to be like him, sharers of his life and nature. 

 This we can gather in that gospel episode where Christ healed many people of their illnesses and when he noticed that they were hungry, he performed that amazing multiplication of the bread and fish that astonished everyone in the crowd. (cfr. Mt 15,29-37) 

 Still, we have to keep our side of the bargain, so to speak. That’s because even if God has given us everything to be what we ought to be, we need to be willing and humble enough to make the necessary adjustments to conform ourselves to God’ plans and ways. 

 We have to be more aware that with our creation by our Father God, we are meant to work. Work for us is an essential, inalienable part of our human nature. It is the very operation of our God-given powers and faculties that range from the spiritual to the intellectual and mental, to the emotional all the way to the manual and the physical. 

 It is what relates us to God and to others, what enables us to attain the ultimate goal of our life—full communion with God and with others. We need to understand then that our work is a vital part of God’s abiding providence over all his creation, especially over us. 

 God’s providence is organic, and extends in time and all the way to eternity of God’s creation. When God created us, he just did not put us into existence and then left us to be on our own. He continues to be with us, governing and leading us to him with due respect of our freedom, because as Creator, God cannot leave us, otherwise we will cease to exist. 

 Thus, we also 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. 

 We really have no reason to fear, nor to wallow in worries, anxieties and sadness. Let’s remember that these unfortunate states are fertile ground for the enemies of our soul, especially the devil, to take advantage of us. 

 We should always be cheerful in life, and strive to show it even externally with smiles and happy, warm and encouraging dispositions. Even in our grief and mourning, we should manage to learn how to be serene, knowing that suffering and death have already been redeemed by Christ and are now endowed with redemptive power. Yes, God always provides for all our needs!

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see”

THESE are words Christ addressed to his disciples after he praised the Father for revealing the deeper meaning of things to those who are childlike, that is, those who are simple and humble like a child. (cfr. Lk 10,23) 

 “I give praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,” he said, “for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” 

 Once again, we are made to consider the crucial role of the virtues of simplicity and humility in our life, since they make us like little children, able to see things clearly and objectively without being trapped in some complicated thinking. 

 I suppose we are familiar with the phenomenon of us seeing and looking, hearing and listening, and yet missing the point. It’s a common phenomenon that we should be more aware of and that we should try our best to correct. 

 To be sure, the object of our senses and even of our intellect and will are not just material things and some ideas. It is much more than these, since reality is not simply made of material things and ideas. Reality starts with God and ends with him, since he is the Creator of everything. 

 We have to learn to discern the presence of God in everything. And this we can do if we strive to nurture our relation with Christ who is the fullness of the revelation of God to us and who remains with us in so many ways. 

 It can only be through him that we can see more than what our eyes can see, hear more than what our ears can hear, and understand more than what our intellect can understand. 

 In other words, we can see, hear and understand what is the most important thing to see, hear and understand in our daily affairs. We don’t get confused, lost or needlessly entangled in the maze of things in the world. 

 We have to do everything to keep vibrant our piety and relation with Christ. This is what truly matters in our life. We need to give priority to our prayers, our sacrifices and recourse to the sacraments over all the other concerns we have, no matter how important or urgent they may be. The tension and the self-denial involved in this would all be worthwhile. 

 We need to explode the myth that taking our faith seriously and consistently living our piety in all the circumstances of our life means having a deprived and secluded life. The opposite is true. 

 With faith we get to see both the macro and micro levels of reality. With faith, our power to cover big and distant areas, as well as to penetrate things to their core is mightier than what the Internet and other new technologies, for example, can do. It would be mightier than what our senses and our intellectual powers unguided by faith can reach. 

 That's the reason why we should always enliven our faith through constant prayer, recourse to the sacraments, assiduous study of the doctrine of our faith, waging a continuing spiritual struggle against our weaknesses and temptations, and growing in the virtues. 

 The saints achieved a universal mind and heart, with the effects of their sanctity reaching distant lands, simply by living their faith to the full even if they were confined to a certain area. The life of St. Therese of the Child Jesus is proof of this. Her heroic sanctity, lived and developed in the confines of her convent, made her the patron of the missions.

The pursuit for creativity and innovation

EVERYONE should be encouraged to be as creative and innovative as he can be. To be creative and innovative is an expression of our freedom that should be used as fully as possible. To be creative and innovative enables us to make progress and growth in our human affairs. It makes as adaptive to the changing circumstances in our life. It is making good use of the talents that we have. 

 In the end, it is the passionate expression of the love we have in our heart. It enables us to explore the many possibilities and options we have to carry out our desire for development and progress in the many aspects and dimensions of human life. 

 We just have to understand that this pursuit should be properly guided by the spirit of God, since in the end our freedom and love to be true freedom and love, which is the source of such pursuit, is none other than to do the will of God. 

 As we all know, it is God who is the original and ultimate Creator and Innovator. He can make everything new. As the Book of Isaiah would put it, God can always make a new thing, making “a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (43,19) Or from the Book of Revelation, we hear God saying, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (21,5) 

 Without God, we would be playing in some dangerous exercises that would do us more harm than good. It can be likened to a sweet poison that can lead us to a disastrous end. So, let’s be wary of the danger. 

 If we are truly with God, we would know how to be creative and innovative, inventive and versatile which should characterize the love and charity we ought to have with one another and in our relation with the world in general. 

 If we have faith in God who will give us the grace we need for this, we would simply be game with the adventure, the challenges, trials and difficulties this whole business would entail. We know that with God, his power to be creative and innovative is infinite, and if we try our best to identify ourselves with him as we should, we have good reason to achieve the same power, at least to some degree. 

 We therefore have to re-ignite our faith in the abiding providence of God who gives us everything we need to attain the goal that he himself has set for us. And that is, that we be true image and likeness of his, adopted children of his who can love the way he loves—that is, in endlessly creative and innovative ways. 

 For this, a lot of prayer is needed. A good study of the doctrine of our faith which, thank God, is already given quite clearly and completely to us. ucSh study should also be done in a continuing and deepening way. 

 We have to continue humbling ourselves to be able to acknowledge this need, then to go through a continuing process of conversion and renewal. Only then can we expect some spiritual growth in ourselves. 

 Our love should be all at once inventive, creative and versatile in the sense that we should never get stuck at a certain level of loving, no matter how successful we already are at that level. 

 Life continues to demand more things from us, and we cannot afford to be contented at any point. Love requires more always. There will always be new challenges, new openings, new needs, given the changing temper of the times and of people. 

 In short, the pursuit for creativity and innovation should be driven by love for God and others, not an expression of self-indulgence.