‘This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’ Abba, nothing is too difficult for You. As Your will purposes all things, now as from the beginning, whether scattered far or gathered near, may we be of one heart, one soul, and one way, to faithfully proclaim the saving grace of the Lord’s name.
Only in the past few years have I begun to ponder specific mysteries of faith, although in my mind all of faith is a beautiful mystery. And our own lived experiences can provide plenty of mysteries through which we invite in the Holy Spirit to reveal unsearchable things we otherwise would not know or the shaping of providence we otherwise could not see.
Providence, as I understand it, means God provides, because God sees farther and knows infinitely more than we do. So we receive grace to savor and grace to endure; we can be content whether abounding or lacking because grace is our sufficiency.
Just as Job was allowed to amass many blessings, he was also allowed to suffer tremendous heartache. Providence is not accounted for in circumstantial gain or loss, but in how God works through those circumstances to uplift us, heal us, or simply draw us closer in trust.
And it was appropriate that the beginning of freedom should be as it was. For I entered a garden that was dead and stripped and bare.
Thomas Merton
Providence cannot be rationalized any more than God’s eternal nature can be quantified or scientifically explained. The Creator of all knowledge and wisdom says simply, “I Am.” If we express love for and hope in our God for whom nothing is impossible, then can we also dare to embrace a reality that defies categorical limits?
Some days I wonder if I am the sheep or the shepherd. Am I a lost soul, wandering, longing to find its way back into the fold? Or have I been sent out, searching high and low for the scattered ones?
And I hear the Lord say, “Yes.” And I am humbled by His meekness and the fluidity of my faith which tells me that in service to God’s kingdom it is possible to simultaneously seek and be sought.
By all accounts, Peter’s expertise was being cast out on the seas, dropping nets into dark depths to catch fish, which he likely traded for income. Then he met Jesus, who invited Peter to go find people in darkness and feed them with the Bread of Life.
Do you think Peter ever pleaded, silently or solemnly aloud? “Please God help me. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
And then the gentle whisper, “Yes. This is what you are called to do.”
I believe when Jesus says, “Follow Me,” He also means, “Model Love.” The only thing that makes us worthy to do so is the mercy of the One who calls us and qualifies us through the Holy Spirit.
There could be no more question of living just like everybody else in the world. There could be no more compromises with the life that tried, at every turn, to feed me poison. I had to turn my back on these things.
Thomas Merton
What I especially witness in the early acts of the apostles is how they worked in unity, with the Lord’s spirit; through His power they not only performed wonders, they spoke with holy wisdom that defied social status or education. The political leaders knew they had been with Jesus, and they threatened the apostles to stop teaching in His name. To which they replied, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Let us be open to the mysteries of providential grace and ponder how God might be asking us to share our uniqueness in unique ways. As Peter, the fisherman called to be a shepherd, reminds us: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.”
