Divine Providence

Divine providence consists of the dispositions by which God guides all his creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end. He does not withhold anything necessary for anyone who would like to come to Him.

Throughout the history of our faith, and particularly in the clear invitation of Jesus in the gospels, God has offered Himself to all without distinction. He sent His son Jesus to die for all of us so we can be recipient of this inexhaustible grace, the grace that gives us the strength to love Him back. For He created us out of love and through this same love He calls us.

Beyond the amazing beauty of this thought, without the freedom to reciprocate the love that God has for us, that by choosing to love Him back, we will never be able to experience how it is to be free. For if love is not given back free, it is not love at all.

Forced love can never be true love. If we can't say no to the urges of our body, that is not truly being free. It only means that we are in bondage and enslaved in the desires of our human flesh and that is not the freedom God intended for us to have.

God has invited all of us to His great banquet feast, but we must accept and embrace that invitation and do what it takes to get to the table. For reasons unknown to us, some seem to be satisfied with or only able to see the crumbs under the table rather than the great and endless delights of the feast above. There are many reasons for this but only God knows the specific barriers that exist in any man’s heart.

The other comforting element is that God is patient. Time and flesh are our enemy when it comes to our redemption but God is always ready and willing to give us all He has if we will turn to Him.

Our own standard claims that every good thing that happens in our lives - new car, new job, bigger house, etc are God's blessings, and yet we heard Jesus speak some few weeks back in the Liturgy when He echoed the sermon on the mount and named those He does consider "blessed!" These are those who are oppressed, nothing to eat, those who don’t have jobs and sick and helpless but whose faith remain steadfast. In Jesus' parable of the vineyard worker, we will see that God's justice and mercy work totally different than our own standard of justice and mercy. These are just some of the many circumstances He communicates to us that His economy of salvation doesn't work in the way our culture and time work.

Finally, there is, in the mystery of God’s provision, a way that we can participate and even somehow increase the grace that an individual can receive from God. God has chosen to work through the prayers of others to bring His grace to His people. So, what can we do? Pray, pray, pray, and pray some more…. and be holy.  And the greatest testament to the love of God is how love has changed those who encounter him.