Half-Hours With The Saints and Servants of God/Part 1: 7. On the Providence of God
7. — On the Providence of God.
"For all Thy ways are prepared, and in Thy Providence Thou hast placed Thy judgments." — Judith ix. 5.
Let us place our trust in the Providence of God. Let us cut off all those anxieties which serve only to torture our minds uselessly, since, whether we make ourselves uneasy or not, it is God alone who sends us all these things, and who may increase them until He sees they disturb us less.
Of what use would all our cares, anxieties, and troubles be to us if they only served to torment us, and made us suffer the pain of having had them?
Our cares are only the cares of an individual, those of God include the whole world. The more we trouble ourselves with our own interests, the less will God interfere.
He who is invited to a splendid banquet does not trouble himself about what he shall eat, and he who goes to a limpid spring does not make himself uneasy, for he knows he will be able to appease his thirst.
Since, then, we have the Providence of God, which is richer than the most magnificent feast and more inexhaustible than the purest spring, do not be uneasy — do not cherish any misgivings.
[Le Pere Croiset, S.J., was born at Marseilles, about the middle of the seventeenth century. His "Exercises of Piety," and his other religious works, are sufficient to prove that he was one of the great masters of the spiritual life.]
Why fear? says St Augustine; you have a God for a protector and His Providence for a guide.
What! says the holy doctor, you fear to perish under the guidance of God, and under the protection of His Providence? Times ergo ne pereas f Is it that you know not that not a single hair can fall off without His approval? Cujus capillus non peribit. Ah! if He takes so much care of things that are of little or no consequence, how safe ought we not to feel when we know with what care He watches a soul which is so precious to Him?
I am under the protection of the Lord, says the prophet; there is nothing He will not fail to supply me with. It is true that I am poor and am destitute of everything, but the Lord takes care of me, and He has undertaken to provide for my wants; nothing can happen to me — sin excepted — without His concurrence. What have I to fear?
What a host of consoling reflections cannot we not find in the Divine Providence over His creatures! How sweet to think with what wisdom our Lord disposes of everything for His glory and our salvation! The cunning and malice of an enemy, the ill-will of an envious man, a hundred accidents of this life, all end advantageously to those who love their God.
It is true that we are but exiles and travellers in this fleeting world, that we therein journey through difficult and dangerous paths, but what does God not do — yes, and daily too — to prevent His servants from straying or from, perishing? He not only is their guide and protector, but He showers down His graces, and even makes use of His angels to help them. He warns them, by secret inspirations, what they should do and what they should not do, so that one would say that God is solely occupied in caring for His creatures.
The world ignores all these loving contrivances of Divine Providence. The wordlings judge of the different accidents which occur to well-to-do people, in the same way they passed their judgment on the adversities of Joseph, but they did not see the resources of Divine Providence which made everything turn to the advantage of His elect — according to the words of the Apostle, Diligentibus Deutn, omnia co-operantur in bonum.
Let all the world rise up in arms against the servants of God, what have they to fear when under the protection of their Divine Master? The malice of men cannot hurt them.
Let them employ all possible cunning to disquiet them, let them use every kind of cruel torture to destroy their bodies, even let all hell be unloosed against them, what have they to dread, if God is for them?
He who has given us life will give us wherewith to sustain it. He who feeds the thief, will He not feed the innocent? And if He takes care of His enemies, what will He not do for His friends? You cannot place yourself into better hands than He who made you what you are. He who has been so good to you before you were what you are, can He leave you uncared for, now that you are what He would wish you to be?