By Fr. Roy Cimagala
WHY? Because Christ is always around and is ever ready to help us in all our needs. Perhaps not always in the way we want it, but to be sure, he always cares for us even if we feel we do not deserve to be helped by him.
We have to train ourselves to have this constant awareness of this truth of our faith, of which we are reminded in that gospel episode where he cured the sick mother-in-law of St. Peter and drove away demons who were possessing a number of people. Big crowds followed him and even wanted to prevent him from leaving them. (cfr. Lk 4,38-44)
In this regard, I believe the thing to do is to strengthen our faith and to keep our piety vibrant for only then can we manage to make Christ’s constant solicitude and care over us effective in our life. With this condition, we can afford to be hopeful and confident.
With this condition, we can be like a good sportsman who would always train himself for his sport and play the game bent on winning though losses can also take place, and yet would still go on playing his game.
With that attitude, marked by confidence and courage, we can continue becoming a better person who even knows how to take advantage of our defects and defeats, our weaknesses and limitations as a launching pad to develop the virtues more.
And so, there’s really no reason to be too worried and anxious when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every reason to be confident and at peace, focused on what we are supposed to do. And that’s because we are always in God’s hands.
Whatever situation we may be in, we can be sure that God will always provide for what is truly needed by us, though it may not be what we want. We just have to trust him completely for he knows better than we do, and what we want may not be what we need. It may not even be what is good for us.
The story of Abraham’s complete trust in God is a great lesson for us. (Gen 22,1-19) When God tested him by asking him to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, he readily agreed. We already know how the story ended—a happy ending it was—and what great lesson he learned from that test.
Abraham named the place where he was supposed to sacrifice his son, “Yahweh-yireh” (the Lord provides), for he was provided in the last minute with a ram to take the place of his son for the sacrifice.
God always knows what to do in any situation we may find ourselves in. He may allow some evil to come to us, an evil that can do us no harm unless we let it, but God knows how to draw good from evil. Our reaction whenever we are tested by some difficulty or temptation should be something like this: God wants us to develop us to be more and more like him.
We too should not be hindered by our stumbles and defeats in life. They should not separate us from God. Rather, like a little child who runs to the strong arms to his father when he falls, we should go to God as quickly as possible since he knows what to do with our failures.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
