When thing are not improving in life, does it mean that God is not working in and through us?

 

Anyone who is in some state of illness or suffering can come to the conclusion that just because things are not improving in life, that God has not worked in and through them in the way that many Spiritual writers had written about.

 

This of course, is a wrong conclusion, because it doesn’t mean that because one’s state in life has come to some standstill, that God has also faded into the background in life.  Our faith reminds us that God is constantly at work in our lives, and it shows in the fact that many of us are not really in a state of sustained suffering.  But this doesn’t mean that just because our state of suffering in life has come to a standstill, that it means that God too, has come to a certain standstill.  He does sustain us in each day of our lives, giving us the means to stay alive and to testify to his presence in our very lives.  

 

Yes, of course it can be tempting to make that judgment that God has removed himself from our lives if our state of suffering has somehow maintained through time.  No one rightly delights in suffering, even though many of the heroic martyrs in the history of the Church can testify that God had been with them even though their lives were a struggle of some sort.  

 

Why I am writing this reflection

 

I am writing this rumination on suffering because my body and its state of suffering in life has been extended since coming out of the hospital after the surgery to remove two plates of bone that covered my frontal lobe of the skull.  I am experiencing weakness in a physical way, and though I am trying my best to activate my life through the exercises that were introduced to me by my physiotherapy doctor, parts of my body tend to be aching in a disturbing way.  Does this mean that I am giving up?  Definitely not.  I will pursue in my activation of my life so that my body can enter into a state of repair and recovery.  

 

I do believe that God is providing me his Holy Spirit to get through each day in my life right now, and giving up on this can end up to be a disaster for me, both as a Singaporean and an ordained priest of the Catholic Church.  There are so many people who are constantly asking me how I am feeling, and all I can say is that my body is still in a state of disrepair.  There is nothing else to add to the reality.  It can end up with the listeners thinking I have given up, when it really isn’t the case at all.  

 

I am thankful for the many saints of the Church who had gone through suffering in many ways but always with a look of valiance and hope because of their belief in God.  Many had prayed for the intercession of the heroic saints in the likeness of Mary Immaculate, St Monica and her son, St Augustine.  I too resort to praying to them for their saintly intercessions.  Of course, the mysteries of the Holy Rosary help us to meditate on the sufferings which Our Lord went through to show great love for his Heavenly Father, in union with the Holy Spirit.

 

Perhaps it is timely for those who have been praying for me to recover to pray to those saints and to have a strong devotion to Our Blessed Mother.  This will end up strengthening our faith and to make us testimonials of heroic power in the providence of God.  I too, offer my daily sufferings for the benefit of the many souls who are suffering in many ways these days of the COVID pandemic.  It makes my daily struggles something worth going through in life.