During last Sunday’s homily, something the priest said had struck me. He said that during our difficult moments we ask God, “Are you God, or not?” How many times have we done this ourselves? Looked up at the heavens and cried as our families were torn apart, as someone dear to us became ill, as we felt isolated or hurt…
Oftentimes during our difficulties we look up and we cry, “Aren’t you God? Are you just sitting there watching me hurt? Aren’t you going to do something?” How can a God who is all-knowing and all-powerful allow me to experience these things when He supposedly loves me? How can a God who can stop the pain continue to allow me to hurt?
Are you God, or not? These words were yelled at our Lord almost two thousand years ago while He helplessly hung there on the cross. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him.” (Matt. 27:42-43). But although He could have saved Himself, He chose not to, because He knew it was only through His suffering that He will be able to save us. It is in our own suffering that we must trust that God is not simply watching us; He is right there with us, holding us and asking for us to trust Him. Trust that what we might believe to be His indifference towards our pain, is in fact His way of showing us that it is through this very pain that we are drawn closer to Him and His suffering… and similar to the way He had on that fateful Friday afternoon, it is through this pain that He is helping us achieve our ultimate goal of joining Him in Heaven.
Jesus, I trust in You.