“I do not lose the presence of God in my soul, and I am closely united with Him…” (Saint Faustina, Diary 318)
I have been praying intently for those who are sick over the last few days. And yet, the other morning during Mass, I suddenly felt inspired to pray for mothers who are unfulfilled.
I know so many women (and men) who are dealing with issues of fertility. One mother who is dear to me has two healthy children and has waited patiently for a third child – for years. Others have no children at all and have tried everything possible to no avail. Then there are the women (and men) who desperately long to add to their families, but whose partner refuses for a myriad of reasons.
It is a terrible burden for those who feel called to parenthood to be denied it. Whole philosophies are devoted to determining how one can find meaning in life. And of these, the existence of God and an afterlife is one way to establish meaning and having children to love is another.
You see, we are wired for love. We humans – made in the IMAGE OF GOD – are designed to form attachments to others.The answer, it seems, is simply LOVE – PURE LOVE!
These parents who long for another soul to love, remind me of the ETERNAL PARENT.
It is a strange parody of God, this longing for children that many of us experience.
God created humans not because He longed for us or was incomplete without us, but, just as many people long for children, it was because of His overarching desire to love and to share. It was an act of SUPREME GENEROSITY that caused God to create us. He made us to share in His goodness with us.
How kind He is! How loving!
Adam and Eve fell, and through them all of us fell – they chose selfishly to act according to their own desires rather than to submit to the Will of God. And even before this, some of the angels fell. And just as Adam and Eve have names, the fallen angels too have names – Satan, Belzebub, Lucifer…
This is important.
Real SOULS fell, not imaginary, symbolic or figurative creatures, but REAL ACTUAL SOULS… And just as they fell, so too could we if we choose to act selfishly in opposition to God’s Will. It is their selfishness that doomed them – we must be vigilant to ensure that our selfishness does not doom us too!
We are each of us given the opportunity to choose freely. Over and over and over again during our Earthly lives. It is because of this choice, that anything could happen, even until the very last moment of our Earthly lives… We could choose selfishly all our lives and in the final moments of this Earthly life change the course of our eternity by choosing and embracing God.
The problem with waiting until the last minute to make this sort of change is that God is NOT an idiot! We cannot trick or fool Him. He is the PERFECT JUDGE. And we cannot trick, beguile or negotiate with the PERFECT JUDGE. In fact, we do not need to represent our case to Him at all… He already knows it! God knows what is inside our soul and judges us based on this ONE TRUTH and ONE REALITY. Final Judgement will not be a Human Court of Law, which so often parodies justice through clever arguments or crafty concealing of the truth.
Saint Paul said, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (Corinthians 2:5-10).
Perhaps this means that while I undertake all the important matters of my day, I should remember in whose image I am made, and perhaps – with GRACE – I may be able to understand the perspective of Saint Faustina...
“With Him I go to work, with Him I go for recreation, with Him I suffer, with Him I rejoice; I live in Him and He in me. I am never alone, because He is my constant companion.” (Diary 318).
And as my constant companion, it is God alone who can give me strength to be selfless, when all my human frailty causes me to fall, selfishly, further and further away from my Beloved – it is God alone who can save me…
For with prayers, everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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