“I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else — God is in this person’s life. You can, you must try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.—Pope Francis
When people speak of virtues like patience and trust, some seem to think that it is a state that just happens. I have had people complain to me that they pray for patience but then have situations that make them impatient. Well if you want to be patient you have to pay the dues.
Patience is developed when we don’t feel patient but deal patiently with whatever is provoking us. You can’t have patience if there is no impatience to deal with. On a good smooth day, when nothing can bother me, I don’t have to be patient; I can just float down the river of having a good day.
Trust is no different. On days when all is well, trust does not even come into the equation. Yet on days when my life does seem like it is full of thorns and weeds and unwanted insects buzzing around in my mind….well…. it is then that trust is born, for I can still trust in God and in the mess of my life, I can begin to see God acting.
Things in life will provoke us. Often we may not know why. The same goes for trust. There are things in life, both within and without that will bring out fear, yet as Jesus said, ‘Fear is useless, what is needed is trust”. Trust is not an emotion, nor is it a feeling, but a state of being, hoping against hope in God’s love and mercy.
Despair pretends to be in touch with reality,
speaking of the past,
eloquent in it’s denunciation of the present,
painting black the future;
all lies.
For hope,
speaks quietly,
in a whisper,
to listen allows life to flourish again,
for despair has no root,
it is only a dream,
loosing site of what our life is about,
to perhaps
simply,
though not simple to live out,
to grow in trust
and yes most important of all,
love.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
