Last week I really had this desire to post a little bit about trusting in God so now I want to do that plus adda little more...
For many of us we say very easily and without much thought, 'yes I trust in God', but in reality how many of us really do. I love these words from Chapter 7 of St Matthew's Gospel:
Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
There it is, the very words of Christ, the Son of God and God Himself. If we cannot believe these words then there are no words we can really believe. These words though are admittedly not easy to follow all the time. They are easy when what we want is what God wants but when our plans tend to differ it is then that so often we turn and walk our own way. I'm not saying that all these turns from God are sinful (although some might be) but it just means that instead of using that opportunity to show our love and faithfulness to our Lord we squander it. And the truth is that so often when we turn our own way, the end result is so much less than it could of been.
We think we know what will make us happy, well actually, we do know what will make us happy, to be loved and to give love in return is where our ultimate joy lies, what we don't know as fully, is how to find that love and how to really give our love to God and to others.
If God really is the personal individually loving God that Jesus Christ told us he was then should we not be willing to hand our lives and it's direction to him? If we don't constantly come back to God as a God of love (for us personally) then we will begin to see him and the teachings of the Church, of Christianity, as rules given by a harsh task master (either God or some 'old men' in Rome or both).
'Why can't I use contraception'? 'Why can't I have sex with my boyfriend/girlfriend'? 'Why can't I do what I want, it's my body, I'm an adult'? These are questions that see God as nothing but a unjust ruler, so in the end we get frustrated and we reject God and the practice of our faith.
For me I consider so many of these questions of trust in the area of sexuality and love:
For those who are single and feel called to marry, it can be very difficult to trust in God. In a world saturated with sex and lust, we can easily be tempted to stop looking for a love that true, faithful, permanent and fruitful (like the love of Christ) and give in for the lesser option. I've heard it said to me a number of times now, 'I know what I'm doing isn't ideal but...'. If we really believe that what God wants is our happiness, how can our only option be to give ourselves physically or sexually to someone who isn't offering a love that is like the love of God? God does not offer us a life that 'isn't the ideal', he offers us true happiness, true joy and true love in this life as a foretaste of heaven. If we don't keep turning to God and begging for grace and strength, a life of true chastity, which is a life open to true love, will seem to us like no more than some impossible dream. Chastity is not saying no to sex, it is saying yes to complete love and no to a false imitation. It is not just the saints who are called to be chaste, the truth is we are all called to be saints!
For those who are married, it does not mean that life becomes a one way ride to God and that we can do whatever we want. Our marriage is meant to be an image of the love of God in the Trinity, a love that is complete. Yet if we don't trust in God and in his plan for our marriage and if we listen to the secualr world telling us that sex is a recreation and to have more than two children is irresponsible then we might think that contraception is the way for us. But what does contracepted sex say, it says 'I can't give you everything of myself'. Contraception says to God, I don't trust you, we will take over from here. Yet the sexual act is meant to image that divine love, it is meant to be an act of complete self giving. If the procreative aspect of sex is separated from the unitive aspect then what is left, sex as pleasure, sex as performance, sex as never really fulfilling us as God meant it to fulfill. This does not mean that every couple must have 20 children but it does mean that they use their gift of fertility to the glory of God. (Knowing and using the patterns of one's fertility is no longer a game of roulette, it is an easily taught science which when practiced is as accurate as any other method and it means that when a couple unite together, they really can renew their wedding vows and give themselves totally to one another. It also helps a couple to achieve pregnancy, so many couples think they are infertile, when the truth is they just don't know how to use their fertility. The Billings Ovulation Method is a leader in fertility awareness).
All this talk though is an unachievable ideal, nothing more than talk, if we don't incorporate the grace of God. This is essential, it cannot be overemphasised. The world says that all you need is within yourself, this is wrong, it is incomplete, we are creatures, wonderfully made creatures but still creatures and ones that are fallen. We struggle to do what we know is right. The only way to perfection, to reach the plan of God for our life today is with sanctifying grace. We can say to ourselves, 'I will be ok, I will just be tough and do what is right', you will fail as certain as the sun will set tonight. The only way to perfection, to happiness, is with the grace of God. We must ask for it every day, we must learn to hunger for it in prayer. There is the image of Christ standing at the door knocking but the door has no handle. It represents our hearts, he stands and knocks but he will not force entry into our lives, we must be the ones to open the door to the Lord, and we can be assured that the second we do, his grace will come flooding in. Primarily in the sacraments do we receive this grace, these are the channels of blessing that Christ left for us. Frequent Holy Communion and frequent Holy Confession will feed and purify our souls. It will make it easier to trust in God. And as one saint wrote, "we must work like it is all up to us and pray like it is all up to God".
Christ said 'be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect'. He would not have set us such a task if we were not given the means to do it. Let us never forget we are creatures of a God of love, a God who loved us so much that he died, not for humanity as some concept, but for you and for me individually. The only way to our true happiness is through God's plan, sometimes God's plan is difficult but there is no reward without a struggle. When we unite ourselves to the cross of Christ our burdens are lifted and we will find the happiness we desire.
St Paul wrote "You must be made new in mind and spirit, and put on a new nature". Let us today stop trying to struggle up the hill alone and stop telling God that we will do it our own way. Pray for the grace to desire, seek and find God's plan for our lives.
|