(Genesis 21.6)
A priest had been asking God for a long time
to reveal to him the secret of holiness.
One day, God, who always hears the prayers of his loved ones, told him,
“Go out and speak to the first person you meet.”
This is what he did and the first person he met was a homeless man.
Sure enough, he went up to him and greeted him:
“Good morning, my friend”.
“Good morning, Sir. Every morning is good.
I never remember having a bad day!”
“Do you mean you are always well?”
“Yes, Sir, I am always well!”
“God bless you!”
“You are right.
God has always given me what my heart desires,
Because from an early age I always wished what God wishes for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Simple!
When I was hungry, I thanked God
because I said to myself: fasting will surely do me good.
When I had food to eat, I thanked God
for giving me a good appetite.
On a sunny day, I desired a warm day,
And when it rained, I desired water to have a shower!”
“And if God… wants you to go to hell?!”
“If that is God’s will,
I would bear hug him and take Him down with me.
Better in hell with Him than in heaven without him.”
“Who are you?’ asked the priest awestruck.
“I am the son of the King. Everything is mine!”
replied simply the vagrant!
“And when did you find God?”
“When I left the creatures…”
This is not my story.
St Alphonsus Mary de Liguori relates it.
This deprived man was truly a rich man.
He was wise.
With the wisdom of the saints.
Saints are saints because they somehow manage
to enter in perfect synchronization with the events of their life
They see the will of God manifested in the events of their everyday life.
And they say ‘yes’ to it.
They know that in life no one is unlucky
no one is the victim of destiny
no one is unfortunate and nothing goes well for him
life is not that cruel to anyone.
Life – the way it is – is good because God, who gave it to us, is good.
And even if the evil one manages to twist it, God always manages to fix it!
How many people invent another reality:
a reality in which they wish to live,
and they become schizophrenic,
Our neurosis is precisely this:
we tend to escape the present reality
to run into another world,
because since we don’t like our current life
this character,
the fact that my girlfriend has left me,
the fact that my husband has died,
the fact that I am in this community
I invent a world of my own with its laws according to my desires.
Being a Christian means just the opposite :
accepting joyfully God’s will for me at this moment.
It is possible to live like kings – reigning over the events of our life.
May our prayer and our desire be,
“May your will be done in me in heaven and on earth.”
Lord, please help me be a kingly Christian!
“Zion was saying:
‘Yahweh has abandoned me,
The Lord has forgotten me.’
Can a woman forget her baby at the breast,
feel no pity for the child she has borne?
Even if these were to forget,
I shall not forget you.
Look I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,
your ramparts are ever before me.
Kings will be your foster-fathers
And their princesses, your foster-mothers.
They will fall prostrate before you, faces to the ground,
and lick the dust at your feet.
And you will know that I am Yahweh,
Those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”
(Isaiah 49.14-16, 23)