The Words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen
The present moment includes some things over which we have control, but it also carries with it difficulties we cannot avoid — such things as a business failure, a bad cold, rain on picnic days, an unwelcome visitor, a fallen cake, a buzzer that doesn’t work, a fly in the milk, and a boil on the nose the night of the dance. We do not always know why such things as sickness and setbacks happen to us, for our minds are far too puny to grasp God’s plan. A person is a little like a mouse in a piano, which cannot understand why it must be disturbed by someone playing Chopin and forcing it to move off the piano wires.
When Job suffered, he posed questions to God: “Why was he born, and why was he suffering? God appeared to him, but instead of answering Job’s questions, He began to ask Job to answer some of the larger about the universe. When the Creator had finished pouring queries into the head of the creature, Job realized that the questions of God were wiser than the answers of men. Because God’s ways are not our ways — because the salvation of a soul is more important than all material values — because divine wisdom can draw good out of evil — the human mind must develop acceptance of the Now, no matter how hard it may be for us to understand its freight of pain. We do not walk out of a theater because the hero is shot in the first act; we give the dramatist credit for having a plot in mind. So the soul does not walk out on the first act of God’s drama of salvation — it is the last act that is to crown the play. The things that happen to us are not always susceptible to our minds’ comprehension or wills’ conquering; but they are always within the capacity of our faith to accept and of our wills’ submission.
One question is never asked by Love, and that is “Why?” That word is used only by the three d’s of doubt, deceit and the devil. The happiness of the garden of paradise, founded on trusting love, cracked under the satanic query: “Why has God commanded you?” To true love, each wish of the beloved is a dread command — the lover even wishes that the requests were multiplied, that there might be more frequent opportunities of service. Those who love God do not protest, whatever He may ask of them, nor doubt His kindness when He sends them difficult hours. A sick person takes medicine without asking the physician to justify its bitter taste, because the patient trusts the doctor’s knowledge; so the soul that has sufficient faith accepts all the event of life as gifts of God, in the serene assurance that God knows best.
(excerpt from From the Angel’s Blackboard)
Reflection on the Archbishop’s Words by Father Andrew Apostoli
In our previous meditation, we focused on Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s emphasis on living the Now-moment. In this meditation, he reminds us that the present moment can be filled with surprises, some of which may test our faith in God’s wisdom and power. He tells us that we can only deal with the questions about the mysteries of life that seem to happen even daily by having a trust in the fact of God’s providence being at work. The archbishop begins his meditation by telling us that there are so many things in the present moment that we have no control over. They make us, like the example of Job he refers to, question God’s plan for our lives. Why are things going wrong? Why, despite our best efforts, do our plans not work out? Why do people disappoint us? Why do we suffer sickness and pain? These are questions that we have probably all had in our hearts at one moment or another. Jesus has the answers to all of them, but He often chooses not to tell us. He wants us to trust Him!
The key to the archbishop’s meditation is his statement, “Because God’s ways are not our ways — because the salvation of a soul is more important than all material values — because divine wisdom can draw good out of evil — the human mind must develop acceptance of the Now, no matter how hard it may be for us to understand its freight of pain.” Just as Job came to realize in his questioning of God, that God’s answers were wiser than man’s questions, so we have to give God the benefit of all doubt that His ways are above our ways and His wisdom surpasses anything we could ever imagine. God’s focus is on our eternal salvation and not our enjoyment of the passing pleasures and comforts of this life. This is why many times His providence will allow us to experience material loss or even bodily suffering so that our soul’s salvation may not be endangered or threatened by the fleeting attractions of the world and the flesh.
Furthermore, God arranges all events in our lives, even when He permits evils to harass us, always with the focus that He will draw good even out of evil.
The archbishop’s final point is that Love does not ask the question, “Why?” because it implicitly trusts that God is ordaining all things for our good. Fr. Lacordaire, a famous Dominican writer, has a beautiful thought, “All I know about tomorrow is that God’s providence will rise before the sun.” In other words, God is already busy taking care of the future. Interestingly, the archbishop points out the question, “Why?” comes from one of the “three d’s of doubt, deceit, and the devil.” Doubts spring from within us sometimes when our faith is weak and other times when God permits our faith to be tested. Deceit can arise internally when a person is not sincerely open to accepting God’s plan of action and so deceives himself by denial or rationalization. Deceit can also come externally from people who have the spirit of the world and, rejecting God themselves, try to promote seeds of rejection of Him in others. Finally, the devil, “the father of lies,” has been spreading his own form of deceit from the time of our first parents in the garden of paradise by making them question God’s ways and especially His commands.
Trust is not easy. It is always a challenge. But I would like to leave you with the words of an inspiring poem on trust:
Trust Him when dark doubts assail you.
Trust Him when your strength is small.
Trust Him when to simply trust Him
Seems the hardest thing of all.Trust Him, He is ever faithful:
Trust Him for His Will is best;
Trust Him for the Heart of Jesus
Is the only place of rest.Trust Him, then, through doubts and sunshine;
All your cares upon Him cast,
Till the storm of life is over
And the trusting days are past.
(Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR is the Vice-Postulator of the Cause for Canonization of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Please visit our website!)
