In His Time

This morning I came across the comment of a Vancouverite doctor who performed numerous surgeries in tragedy stricken Haiti.   She said “It will take a long, long time for them to rebuild”.  As her words slowly sank in, the memory of make-shift tents built in close proximity to each other, which I had seen on the news, resurfaced and I deeply pondered over how each family would make it through the weeks,months and perhaps…years?

As I plowed through Fr. Jacques Phillippe’s book, Called to Life, answers seemed to jump up to life.  I quote randomly as I jump forward and backwards through the first two chapters…

“God’s very first gift is human life!… It is understandable that people often have difficulty in welcoming life as a gift.  Life brings sorrow,sufferings and disappointments.  Sometimes we feel that it is more a burden than a gift… But even with its trials and sufferings, life still is a gift.”

“Live!  I want you to live! (Ezek 16:6-13)  Here is the first and the most fundamental call to us from God.  When life seems too hard to bear we must hold tight to this word, will to respond to the call, choose to live and welcome life as it is, with all its burdens and sorrows.  In the end, this confident acceptance bring us to see life as an immense gift.”

“Many people have made this choice to believe in life despite their suffering… Note that this means We must “chose all”, as St. Therese of Lisieux said.”

“Etty Hillesum (a young Jewish woman who died at Auschwitz in 1943) expressed the same thoughts:  I am having an ever-stronger experience these last days: in my least daily actions and sensations a hint of eternity creeps in.  I am not the only who is tired, sick, sad or anguished.  I am united with millions of others across centuries.  All that is what life is made of.  Life is beautiful and full of meaning in its absurdity if you know how to take it as a whole.  So life in some sense or other forms a perfect whole. As soon as we refuse or wish to eliminate certain elements, as soon as we follow our own pleasure or caprice by accepting one aspect of life and rejecting another, then life becomes in effect absurd.  Once the sense of the whole of it is lost, everything becomes arbitrary.”

“To a disturbing extent, contemporary Western culture has largely lost sight of these truths.  It has difficulty recognizing the real value of every life, supposing instead that life is only worth living if one is rich, young, healthy, successful in everything, a potential subject of a fashion magazine cover.  Handicap, old age, and suffering rob life of value.  Yet fortunately the Church, faithful to the Gospel, ceaselessly proclaims the value of all life, even those lives that do not conform to society’s current idea of success.” “God calls us to freedom.  But instead of being given to us instantaneously and in full measure, this freedom is built up progressively and patiently day by day, by being faithful to God’s calls… Through pride, human beings refuse to accept life and happiness from the Father’s hands, with confident and loving dependency, preferring to be the source of life for themselves. …Looking for happiness not to God, but to ourselves, we feverishly seek it in things like riches, pleasure and fame.”

“Openness to God’s calls frees us from pride… Openness to God’s calls helps us escape the pitfalls of desire.  God redirects desire towards goods better able to satisfy us than those we lust after.  And this openness frees us from fear.  By being open to God’s calls, the believer receives encouragement and strength that empower him to rise above his fears and break out of the narrow circle of inadequate coping strategies by which people too often attempt to handle fear.

“...God’s calls do not always involve the whole future panorama of one’s life.  Sometimes one is called to take just a single step –‘nothing except for today,’ as St. Therese of Lisieux said.  But it is enough to live and advance a day at a time, finding meaning in existence and persevering until one receives the grace to see more. In fact it is better that we not know the future but discover it step by step.  We are tempted to imagine that security lies in mastering the future, but the reverse is true: the more we confidently entrust the future to God, without trying to know it or master it, the more secure and peaceful we are.”

My prayer is that Haiti’s suffering will not be in vain.  I earnestly pray that as they wait, each will hear and answer the call of the Father, to live each day to the fullest, one moment at a time.  As each hand reaches out to another, may the whole nation stand stronger than it has ever been.

As I completed my Bible study this morning, I came across this verse…

“In His great love, God will restore and rebuild, cleanse and heal.  Their weeping will be turned to shouts of joy.  Best of all, God will make a new covenant with His people….This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.  I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will all be forgiven, and all will know the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31:32-33)

May we all claim this scripture as a prophetic word for Haiti.

God bless,

Melissa – Feb 2-3, 2010