“In our blindness and ignorance we say that this is accident or luck, but to our Lord God it is not so.” (Saint Juliana of Norwich).
My son had a serious injury to his shoulder this year. It was sort of random and strange that it even occurred and was certainly not something that I would have anticipated or expected. And yet when it happened it derailed lots of things…
It meant that he was unable to participate in sports and other forms of physical activity – as he had planned to do. It meant that he needed to change the way that he played the piano (thank God he was able to continue to play despite the injury). It meant that he needed additional time away from school because he needed to see doctors and physiotherapists and surgeons. He also needed time to recover from the surgery that resulted from this experience.
And in all of this, there was great inconvenience caused by this accident.
So much inconvenience that I have been thinking about what the nature of an accident really is…
After all, are there really ever any true accidents for those of us who have true faith. I mean, if God wanted to prevent something from happening surely He would just prevent it. He is Lord of all creation, so nothing is beyond His power, and He only acts from LOVE and for GOOD, so that means that if God wants to do something or allow it, He will do that. And that also means that if my son experienced a serious injury to his shoulder that God allowed, then it must surely be for my son’s ETERNAL GOOD…
Saint Juliana of Norwich said, “And I saw that truly nothing happens by accident or luck, but everything by God's wise providence ... for matters that have been in God's foreseeing wisdom, since before time began, befall us suddenly, all unawares; and so in our blindness and ignorance we say that this is accident or luck, but to our Lord God it is not so.”
And Cardinal Robert Sarah wrote at page 25 of “Couples, Awaken Your Love”, “Love, by its essence, involves a leap into the unknown, a death to oneself, because genuine love is a love that loves to the end. And to love to the end means to die for those whom you love. It also means to forgive them. This involves the experience, one day or another, of the Cross and, therefore of sacrifice, which will seal the spouses’ unity definitively.”
And I have been thinking about that today. For it seems to me that there are no accidents. And all I need to know is that I must have faith that God is working all things to the GOOD. For when I really understand that then I really know that all will be well. Because a damaged shoulder is really nothing at all if my focus is on eternity….
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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