Christianity is unique among all of the religions in the world in that it professes Faith in a God that is both utterly transcendent and yet incarnate and closer to us than we are to ourselves. We have a God who is outside space and time and yet who took on flesh and became man for the Glory of the Father and the salvation of souls. Other religions around the world tend to pick one of the two elements. They either worship the unknowable god, or they worship the god in the forest, or the ocean, or the statue. The fact that our God is both beyond our comprehension, and yet was born in the flesh, can teach us a lot about who God is and how He is inviting us into relationship with Him. We are invited to see how He is both flying at 30,000 feet and is intimately involved in every little action of ours.
In today’s Gospel, we hear how the Lord sent out the Apostles two by two in order to preach repentance and drive out demons. Our Lord told them, “Take nothing for the journey.” They would have His authority and they did not need anything else. He could have easily accomplished the task Himself, more perfectly and efficiently, but He chose to use twelve lowly men to accomplish the task with His guidance. It was the Apostles and the Spirit who accomplished the task. We see both the omniscience of God laying out the path before them, guiding them to their goals, but also the immanence of God sending His authority with the twelve. He is both far off providently guiding us and incredibly close working through our every action. This is what it means to cooperate with God’s will -to act knowing that God’s hand is guiding our every action.
In cooperating with God’s will, we must try to avoid two errors. We must avoid an activism in which we work so hard that we do not actually invite the Lord into our lives that He may fill us with His grace. We must also avoid a quietism in which we sort of punt all responsibilities leaving everything to the Lord. He asks us to act like a child learning how to walk. We are using our own strength and abilities, but we are weak and wobbly, so the Father puts His hands around us to guide us such that it is both Him and us acting in conjunction with one another. Even though the child may fall down, the Father is still there loving the child and encouraging them on.
At the darkest moments of our lives, surely we have thought to ourselves, “How could God let this happen? How can He be present in these circumstances?” This is a natural reaction to the various disasters that can befall us in this life, but the reality is that we have not been abandoned and that even this suffering is being guided that it ultimately may lead to the manifestation of God’s glory. When we are in moments of trial, we must constantly remind ourselves that “All things work for the good of those who love Him.” All things work for our good if we love Him. Not some things or even most things but all things will result in good for those who love Him. God is always in the driver's seat and he asks us to sit shotgun with Him. He asks us to let Him direct the course of our lives trusting that He will lead us to our destination of Heaven. He may take routes that do not make sense to us, but He will not lead us astray. So much of the Christian life is trust - trusting again and again that the Lord knows what He is about. He is in control and He loves us, what else do we need?
In Christ,
Colm Larkin