"Let my future be as God wants it. I leave it in the hands of Him who cannot operate but for the good of all. And this is enough to make me happy." Blessed Giovanni Battista Mazzucconi
How often we seek to control our future. We make decisions that are not consistent with the will of God for us. For the most part the result is unhappiness. But we try the same thing again and again, hoping that things will change. It is hard for us to entrust our lives into the hands of God. Will he come through for me? It really depends whether I truly believe he loves me more than I can love myself. If I do, then he knows what is best for me, even if it means purification and pruning. He wills my eternal salvation and glory with him. And in his infinite wisdom he knows what is best for me. Surrendering to him is freedom to become whom I am meant to be.
"None lose you except those who depart from you." St. Augustine
Because God has blessed us with intellect and free will out of love and redeemed us out of love, God will always love us. That is his nature. Even when we forsake him as our God, going after other gods. While the light remains, when we depart from the light, we enter into darkness. Like the Prodigal Son, we can choose to deny and leave the Father, The Father always remains ready to receive us back. But if that is our last choice at the time of death, then we remain frozen in that choice. Still the Father loves u, even in accepting our free choice of darkness over the light.
"You don't climb a mountain in leaps and bounds, but by taking it slowly." Pope St. Gregory the Great
If you ever hiked a mountain trail, you know it involves many switchbacks and ups and downs. How many times I heard that it was just around the corner as a motivation to keep going. Only by persevering do you eventually reach the top. The vista was worth the struggles during the climb. The same is true in our spiritual journey, at the end of which is the eternal presence of God. But to get there involves ups and downs, switchbacks, only to hear that it is just around the corner. The ups and downs of our spiritual journey involve divesting ourselves of the encumbrance of sin. The switchbacks are the steady growth in virtues. The voice that says it is just around the corner is the grace of God not to give up but keep going. It is easy for us to stop going up for a variety of human reasons, But the conviction that the vista will be worth it keeps us taking one step at a time. It is just around the corner.
We must begin by getting out of the unhealthy environment of selfish preoccupations. There are people who live sad and tormented by memories of the past, by what others think of them in the resent, and by what happen to them in the future. Let them forget about themselves and worry about others, about doing them some good, about serving them, and the gray ghosts will disappear. Happiness does not depend on the outside, but on the inside." St. Augustine
When a person is in the will of God, trying to live the way that is pleasing to the Lord, then he can experience peace and happiness. This is not what the Evil One wants for us. To distract us from our real purpose, he places stumbling blocks in our path. These are the temptations that are self-centered. Each fall is a victory for him. But thanks be to God, while the temptations are from the Father of lies, God gives us sufficient grace and strength to lift our eyes to the needs of others instead. To the extent of our love and service of others, to that extent we can begin to experience what real happiness. This is what being selfless is.
"The word of God does not belong to him who hears or speaks it, but to him who puts in into practice." St. Giles
One of the judgments of God against the Chosen People was not that they had not heard the word, but that they did not put it into practice. It was the same in Jesus' time. The religious leaders refused to accept the word he shared with them., Recall the scribe who came to Jesus seeking to know the most important Commandment. Jesus said it came down to Love of God totally and love of neighbor. When the scribe acknowledged this, Jesus said he needed to take the next step and live it. It is not that we don't know what God has spoken to us through his word. It is that we don't always act in accord with his word. That is because like the people of old, we hear with our ears and know in our heart but we choose not to act on it less we have to change our ways.
"Whatever a man prefers to God, that he makes a god to himself.? St. Cyprian
What are the gods of our heart and hands? We may not consciously think that we have other gods. But when we try to serve God and mammon, in reality we are serving the latter, giving lip service to the former. God has made it clear that if we want to be in relationship with him, our hearts must be rooted in him primarily. We can't substitute the God we can't see for gods we can. Scripture says that God is a jealous God. He has a right to be. He has created us in his own image and likeness and has predestined us for himself. We belong to him. To make other created things gods is to deny our relationship with the one, true God. We must choose whom we shall serve.
"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." St. Augustine
It is so easy for me to think that I am not that important in the eyes of God. It is so easy for me to focus on my faults and failures rather than on my true identity. That identity comes not from the world but from God who gave me life. God loves me uniquely, for there is no other person that is my clone. If I grasp and accept this truth, then should I not live my life differently? I am not an accident. I am chosen in love to fulfill my destiny in love. To do otherwise is to waste the precious gift I have been given.
