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The Time After Pentecost
the things that are injurious to us, threatening to divert our soul from God, the only true
goal. How shall we protect ourselves from the things that are injurious to us? Our own
insight and watchfulness and efforts fail us almost entirely. Woe unto us unless someone
else intervenes, unless someone full of compassion on our blindness and frailty grasps our
hands and keeps us away from the things that could lead to our perdition. The providence
of God does intervene to keep us from things hurtful. We do not fully realize how much
we owe to the protection of our heavenly Father.
God’s providence leads us to the things that are wholesome. God never ceases to work
within our soul for our salvation; with untiring care He tries to lead us to the things that are
conducive to salvation. What is the Incarnation of the Son of God, His death on the cross, His
Ascension into heaven, His sitting at the right hand of the Father, His never-ceasing compassion
on us, asking mercy for us, but the uninterrupted work of God within our soul? What else could
He have intended when He instituted the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, the Sacrifice
of the Mass, the sacraments of penance and the Holy Eucharist, but to lead us to things that are
wholesome for us? He commands us to discharge the duties of our vocation; He orders us to
fulfill our obligations of prayer, the special commands and regulations He gave us, our vows.
And what can all that mean to us if it is not intended for our purification and sanctification?
What does He wish to achieve by the daily trials and difficulties, the sufferings, temptations,
and humiliations in our interior and exterior life? What can be His intention when He sends us
sicknesses and illnesses, and when He suffers us to fall into sin? The only possible explanation
is that He desires to lead us to the things that are conducive to our salvation. We ourselves do
not know what will be conducive to our salvation; nor do we know how to make good use of
the right means. We are never sure that we are tending in the right direction at a given moment.
Only God, the Father in heaven, by His infinite wisdom and love is able to lead us unerringly
to our heavenly goal. “Commit thy way to the Lord and trust in Him, and He will do it” (Ps
36:5). This is our faith, our grateful confidence: God’s providence leads us to those things that
are conducive to our salvation.
How wonderful is God’s providence despite the fact that we cannot understand His ways! “Are
not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without
your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; better are
you than many sparrows” (Mt 10:29 ff.). What can we fear? When the Lord takes care of us,
when He leads us to the things that might be conducive to our salvation, we can have no reason
whatsoever to be afraid. The only fear we ought to have is that our weak will may rely upon
itself and lead us to pride, false confidence, and our own perdition. Let us, therefore, abandon
ourselves, our soul, and our salvation into the hands of the Father in heaven, that He and His
will may rule our destiny.
God’s ways generally are entirely different from the ways of men, which are based on human
plans that often depart from the plans of God’s providence. Yet His providence alone can protect
us from the things that are injurious to us and lead us to those that serve our salvation. The
Apostle admonishes us to “walk in the spirit” of an unshaken faith in God’s divine providence.
“It is good to confide in the Lord rather than to have confidence in man. It is good to trust in
the Lord rather than to trust in princes” (Gradual). We might add that it is good to trust in the
Lord rather than in our own human knowledge and faculties and our puny efforts.
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