How often, especially in times of crisis, do we feel tricked by God? We think we have been duped into believing that all will be well if we just have faith in the Almighty. In fact, when bad times hit, we feel abandoned and betrayed.
Even Jesus Christ felt abandoned when He said from His cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?!” [Matthew 27:46] However, as we learn from Jesus, God does not abandon His children, nor does He try to fool us. We fool ourselves if we think we can get through life without suffering. Whether it is physical pain, illness, emotional distress, or all of the above, each of us will come face to face with suffering—because that is part of life.
Why?
Sometimes we bring suffering upon ourselves by the way we live and the choices we make. Then there are times when life is turned upside down and inside out through no misdeed of our own; we are left wondering “Why?” We are not always going to understand the events in our lives. It is more important that we do not allow those events and the questions they conjure up to block us in our journey towards holiness and ultimately Heaven. The key to entering the Kingdom of God is in the way we respond to life and what we experience in life.
Truly, Mary our Blessed Mother did not allow events in her life, even the most painful moment of seeing her Son die on the cross, to stop her on her journey. What Mary did not understand, she pondered and with God’s grace, every event in Mary’s earthly life served a purpose—to draw her closer to God’s loving embrace. That embrace—that unity with the Holy Trinity—gave Mary the strength to overcome her own pain and to share God’s love in this world, especially with those in great need.
An Instrument for Love
St. John Paul II wrote that suffering is the instrument by which love is released in the act of caring and healing. We witnessed God’s love through strangers helping strangers, regardless of their own sufferings, in the aftermath of the recent hurricanes. These devastating events remind us that we are put on this earth to serve a purpose—not to store up material treasures but to love one another as God loves us. When we unite our lives with the Holy Trinity, we purchase the treasure of God’s infinite love; so great it must be shared.
When the Prophet Jeremiah said “You duped me O Lord” [Jeremiah 20:7], Jeremiah was amazed at God’s strength and his own burning desire to spread God’s Word. Despite his own suffering, Jeremiah remained confident in God. Therefore, let nothing in our lives go to waste; let us use every moment to strengthen our union with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and let us share the sweetness of God’s love, especially with those in greater need than ourselves. #
4 thoughts on “You Duped Me O Lord!”
“The Lord has given me a well trained tongue.” I do not wish to waste my blessings. I want to use this gift to inspire others and bring them closer to GOD. I know what GOD wants me to do.
Leon
Amen. Beautifully put. Thank you.
St. Paul has something very important to say about sufferings in Col 1:24 ff — “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body which is the church … I labor and struggle in according with the exercise of his power working within me.” St. Paul’s thought here is very Catholic. He says that Christ is acting within us as members of his mystical body and thus our sufferings have a value for the welfare of the Church. We go beyond the Old Testament notion of sufferings as simply testing — an idea that we often see in Protestant thought — instead there is a positive role in suffering which makes it valuable for the welfare of others on the road to eternal life. The value of suffering is one of the truths of the faith that was lost in the Reformation. The whole idea of euthanasia arises from a non-Catholic attitude that sees human suffering as useless and a scandal. Indeed, it is the proverbial “scandal of the cross” that remains a scandal to the uncomprehending even today.
Pingback: SVNDAY CATHOLICA EDITION | Big Pulpit