When you've just had a nasty fall, there is confusion, pain and indignation as you sit there rubbing your knees, wondering how this fall happened, and scolding yourself for falling in the first place.
One thing you don't feel is strong? How on earth can you feel strong after this?
[PAUSE]
The big problem that human beings struggle with most is Misfortune. Misfortune makes us distrust our senses, our beliefs, even our trust in God. How many people walk away from God because of the great calamities that they have suffered. The one thing you don't feel in the face of Misfortune, Calamity and Tragedy is strong. You feel powerless and unable to cope. And just where is God in this?
Where is God in the Pandemic?
Where is God in Ukraine?
Where is God in the face of Climate Change?
These are all important questions and ones that we have a right to ask. God has given us minds to ask that question and to make choices in the face of insurmountable odds.
But what we cannot do is expect to know the mind of God. Either we believe that He has a supremely good reason for allowing us to suffer, or we believe that He has not.
St Paul believes that his sufferings mean something. He believes that when we are weak, God uses his strength to bring good. Just look! All the terrible things that have happened to the Apostles have brought more people to Christ. They have seen their own suffering in the faces of the persecuted Church and they see that salvation is not only possible but guaranteed through Jesus Christ. This is because the suffering of the Apostles has exposed a lie. The strength of the Devil is lies and lies vanish when there is truth.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord is hungry and the Devil tempts Him with the easy way out: turn stones to bread.
Our Lord is away from home and the Devil tempts Him with the easy way to prove that the Father still loves Him: jump off the temple and the angels will come.
Our Lord is uncomfortable in the wilderness and the Devil tempts Him with the easy way back to comfort: worship him and have all the riches of the Earth.
The lie is always the easy way out. The Devil says to you, "if God loved you, He wouldn't let you suffer! So give up on God and you won't have to struggle with this problem any more!" Indeed, to blame God or to call Him out for our misfortunes is the easy way out. If we take it then we find some fleeting comfort, but we cannot grow. Lose God and any meaning or reason for our suffering is lost. Lose God and there will be no answer for our pain. Lose God and gain numbness - feel nothing ever again - and the warmth of love is extinguished.
[PAUSE]
We have to remember that the Devil deceived us into falling away from God in the first place. We have to take responsibility for being deceived and for turning away from God but it is the Devil's continued lies that we are struggling to get away from, and that hurts. It hurts because we are too comfortable with the lie to receive the truth after our Fall from God. But getting back to the truth is precisely what is good for us.
[PAUSE]
Lent is about picking ourselves up after our Fall and continuing our journey back to God. It is a long journey of repentance, full of hardship and struggle to separate ourselves from deception and ignorance but, whether we see Him or not, God is faithful and our growth to maturity in Him will help others to find God in the joy of His Resurrection.
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