About the ways of God's Providence in human life

“The Lord is my hope from my youth. I was established in You from the womb, from my mother’s womb. You are my patron: about You I will take away my singing” (Ps. 71:5–6) Saint David was once in one of those unfortunate states, for which he was honored to be not only an inspired herald, but also an animated prototype of the Divine Sufferer - the Lord Jesus. Fierce enemies (as he himself describes his misfortunes) surrounded him like bees on a honeycomb; the arrows of disaster penetrated his soul; he became a subject of reproach for everyone he knew; his strength was exhausted; The Lord Himself, who had done good to David, withdrew from him in a terrible state! But the righteous does not faint! Finding no consolation in the present, he turns to the past; recalls various events that happened to him; goes through all the ages of his life in thought; goes back to its beginning; seeks the Lord” who has withdrawn from him, according to all traces of his existence. And now the darkness dissipates! Providence, not visible in the present, is revealed in the past; the believing sufferer sees that the Lord more than once subjected him to great and fierce troubles, but always saved him from them, that the bitterer the cup of temptation was, the more he was always rewarded with sweetness, he sees and with the help that has passed, being assured of future deliverance, he exclaims: Lord is my hope from my youth: in You I was established from the womb, from the womb of my mother. You are my patron: I will sing about You! The God of David, brothers, is together our God and Lord. And natural faith teaches us that Providence controls the life of every person; and the Gospel assures us that without the will of the Heavenly Father not a single hair can fall from our head (Luke 12:7). But are there many people who, having been forced, like David, to turn to their past life, like him, could find in it comforting traces of Providence that benefited them? On the contrary, among Christians there are even a considerable number of those for whom their own lives serve as a source of doubt about Providence. Why don’t many people find the Providence of God in their lives, when He, according to the correct teaching of faith and reason, controls the life of everyone? This subject, brethren, is, as you can see, worth the most careful study: for, not being able to find traces of Providence in our lives, through this we deprive ourselves of the greatest consolation in the midst of suffering, and are arbitrarily subjected to despondency, and sometimes despair. So, let’s devote these moments to thinking about the ways of God’s Providence in human life. The ways of God, brothers, are generally mysterious: for they are distant from our ways, like heaven from earth (Isa. 55:9): but the ways of Providence for the human race are especially incomprehensible. Since man was created free, destined to act on his own, the Wise Creator, in order not to violate this advantage, controls our destiny invisibly and inconspicuously. In this regard, the same thing happens to us as to small children, from whom educators sometimes hide their presence in order to give them complete freedom to act according to their own will. The nature of our life greatly favors such secrecy of Providence. For what is our life? It is a constantly evolving scroll, filled with many writings, of which one part is always hidden. We are often unable to understand well the meaning of the letters we have written; the less able to notice those, so to speak, amendments that are made in it by the invisible hand of Providence. What is our life? This is an ever-increasing fabric, the composition of which includes countless different threads, the surface of which is visible to everyone, and the base - to no one. It is difficult for us to determine how these threads, with all their heterogeneity, are combined into one composition; the more difficult it is to indicate how the invisible finger of the world Artist produces new images and types in this fabric. What is our life? This is a collection of countless and heterogeneous phenomena, which, like animated shadows, move around our consciousness, amaze the senses, occupy the imagination, nourish the mind, delight or sadden the heart and soon disappear, leaving a faint trace in the memory. We are all spectators and participants in this spectacle; but not a single sage has yet discovered how it happens. Given such the mystery of our own lives, what is necessary from those who want to see traces of Providence in their lives? What is required, firstly, is constant and strict attention to your life and the Providence of God, and secondly, a true and pure view of life and Providence. These are the main and necessary conditions: for both those who look little and those who look badly either see nothing, or see very little, or wrongly. These necessary conditions most often remain unfulfilled. In fact, there are so many people who are completely inattentive to their lives! Like careless sailors, they are happy that the ship of their life is sailing along the stormy stream of times, without taking the trouble to know how it changes its direction, what winds it uses, what piers it should enter, whether it is in danger, whether there is damage anywhere. One would think that these people relied on Providence for everything, just as swimmers rely on an experienced helmsman, and that is why they are so careless. No, they don’t think at all about God, they don’t even think about themselves: the mechanical execution of certain tasks, entertainment, communication, games - that’s their occupation! Example, habit, addiction, willfulness - these are their rules! Knowledge from hearsay of certain truths of faith, presence, on occasion or necessity, at the performance of a small number of sacred rites - this is their religion! Judge for yourself: can one expect such people to find traces of Providence in their lives? To see what such inattention can produce, one need only remember the pagans. Before them, just as before us, was the whole magnificent world of God, in which everything proclaims the wisdom of the Creator. In addition, this wisdom used, according to the testimony of the Apostle, special and varied means to instruct them about itself. However, the pagans did not understand the Creator in creation, they bowed their knees before idols, “they said to the tree: you are my father, and to the stone: you gave birth to me” (Jer. 2:27). If the pagans, due to their inattention, did not find God in the whole world: is it surprising when many, due to the same pagan inattention, do not find Him in their lives; for what is our life compared to the life of the whole universe? In some people, apparently the opposite happens, but in fact the same thing happens: that is, they show great attentiveness to their lives, but lack attention to Providence. For such people, thinking about their own lives is their favorite subject; they do not leave a single case unattended; delve into the beginnings and consequences of all the changes that happen to them; from everything they extract rules for their behavior; they know the art of living in all its secrets; they can tell and explain their story from infancy: this is their perfection! But here are the shortcomings: they never considered this story in relation to the Providence of God and would be surprised to hear that without Him it is just as little possible to explain the life of each person as the existence of the world. According to these people, everything that happens to them is either the fruit of their prudence, or a play of passions, or a matter of surprise and chance; admitting the impossibility of explaining anything for these reasons seems to them a shameful weakness of mind. Judge for yourself, can we expect that these people, distrustful and afraid of Providence, will find it in their lives? In order to see what this, so to speak, attentive inattention to one’s life can produce, let us turn again to the pagans, but not the simple ones, but the philosophers. What works did they not undertake in the study of nature? Some of them can be called martyrs of their science. And yet there were philosophers (it’s a pity that there is no other name for this) who saw one case all over the world. Why? Because they did not want to see Providence, they wanted to do without the Creator, they imagined themselves, so to speak, creating the universe. If the ancient philosophers, due to inattention to Providence, did not find it in the whole world, is it surprising that their (moral) descendants, for the same reason, do not find it in their lives? For again let us say that our life is before the life of the universe? No, that’s not what God’s holy men did! We are amazed at how they saw the Lord in all the paths of their lives, and we think to explain this by saying that the Providence of God participated in the adventures of their lives in a special way. Without rejecting this, - for the Lord Himself calls them His associates and friends (John 15, 14, 15; James 2, 23), - it must be said that the holy men were all extremely attentive to the ways of God. Let's look at one David. Like a king, how many worries, enterprises, labors, and sorrows he has! However, what is he thinking about on his royal bed, at a time when all Israel and all nature are silent and at rest? He reflects on the fate of God's truth, on how the Lord raised him from the flock to the throne of Israel. “At midnight I rise,” he says to God, “to confess to You about the destinies of Your righteousness” (Ps. 119:62). And he rises at midnight when, in his own words, he has already “praised the Lord with the sevenfold day” (Ps. 119:164)! Here is an example to imitate, here is a rule that must be followed! We must love the ways The Lord's, and they will become noticeable to us. “Give to the one who loves,” says St. Augustine, “and the beloved will be revealed.” If we constantly observed our lives, had childlike trust in the saving truth that without the will of God not a single hair falls from our head, then how many times, when thinking about our fate, that same mind of ours, which now misunderstands, is lost in conjecture, does not know what to do - how many times would it itself stop our attention, saying: “Look, this is the hand of God! It was She, the Almighty, who warded off this or that calamity from you, laid down this or that barrier in front of you, and saved you from those evils that burdened thousands like you! It was She, the wise one, who led you unharmed through so many dangers and difficulties, placed you in a place where you can not only be calm and happy yourself, but also edify the happiness of others! It was She, the all-merciful One, who bestowed upon you so many unexpected joys, so many undeserved gifts, rewarded so many apparently unrequited losses, warmed and nourished your infancy, curbed and corrected your youth, blessed and overshadowed your courage.” “But there are,” someone will say, “very attentive people who, with all the zeal of children, would like to see and kiss the fatherly right hand of Providence; however, they are deprived of this happiness.” Indeed, brothers, there are such people; but there are other reasons in relation to them: it can be said affirmatively that in such people there is a lack of a timely, faithful and pure view of Providence. And, firstly, when do most people turn to the ways of Providence and seek consolation in them? When you are struck by some kind of disaster, when you find no consolation in anyone or anything on earth, when your mind is confused, your feelings are darkened, your heart is overwhelmed with sorrow. That is, those moments in which they often forget themselves, which are considered incapable of thinking about ordinary things, choose those very moments to think about the ways of Providence! It is true that in times of sorrow we need more than ever the comforting confidence in Providence; but it is equally certain that we are then least able to follow in the footsteps of Providence. Are there many Davids who, being in the midst of the fire of temptation, would have retained all faith, could have remained calm contemplatives of the fatherly love of God even when it is hidden under the guise of anger and truth? This holy art is the fruit of long-term experience; we do not have it and yet we dare to do what is possible and useful for only the experienced. No! In advance, you must accustom yourself to find consolation in Providence. When the mind is bright, the feelings are light, the heart is peaceful, then one must reflect on one’s life and learn from it the destinies of God’s truth. Such moments, for the most part, follow fervent prayer: therefore, prayer should serve, so to speak, as an approach to these reflections. Whoever acquires skill in this holy work, like David, will not fall among temptations. Without this, in times of disaster, it is better to seek consolation from others than to rely on one’s own reflection on God and His Providence. How else do you want to see the action of Providence in your life? Usually more or less miraculous: everything natural, simple, universal is first excluded from the circle of these actions. As if the realm of heavenly Providence consisted of nothing but miracles and extraordinary things! As if what seems unusual and rare to us were the same for God Himself! In this case, we are not like ourselves: usually we love to explain everything, but here we want to see the inexplicable; we are upset if we don’t see the reason for something, but here we are unhappy that we see it! And what is the need, how was help provided to us: was an Angel or a charitable person sent from heaven? It is enough if we are saved. The Israelites, dying of thirst, would not have had to thank God if He, without bringing water out of the stone, had shown it to them among the stones? In the birds of the air, in the lilies of the field, everything is natural, but the Savior presents them as a striking example of God’s fatherly care for creatures and man (Matthew 6:26, 28). No, wanting to see traces of this care in our lives, we must first free ourselves from addiction to the miraculous: otherwise it may be said about you: “An evil generation... seeks a sign, and a sign will not be given to it” (Matthew 12:39). Like those Israeli elders (Ex. 24:10), we will be pleased if we are given the opportunity to see in the adventures of our lives at least small traces of God, who benefits us, and we will leave it to Moses and David to talk with Him face to face. The Lord has already performed many miracles for all of us: He brought us out of insignificance, redeemed us with the blood of His Son, sanctified us with the Holy Spirit - and we have not yet paid anything for these miracles. There is only one miracle that we should expect in life from the Lord and that He expects, perhaps, from us - this is the correction of our heart, the renewal of our life, the spiritual resurrection. If anyone does not find this miracle in his life, then woe to him, woe to him! In what other adventures are they most likely to look for traces of Providence? Happy or unhappy? But why ask? Misfortunes are generally seen as something gloomy and terrible, about which it is best not to talk or think. Many - if they are considered to be the actions of God's justice, punishing our iniquities; but that they could constitute a gift of God’s love does not even come to mind. It is true that it would be most fitting for the Heavenly Father, Who is Goodness itself, to reveal His Providence through good deeds alone. But what to do when we are all struck by a severe illness? The Merciful Physician, out of His very love, uses bitter substances. What to do when we are self-willed and often strive for our own destruction? The wise Pestun, out of his very zeal for our good, stumbles the feet of reckless children so that they do not fall into the abyss. Let's look at the universe: in it not only the sun, moon and stars tell the glory of God; but also hunger and cold, and fire and the spirit of the storm (Ps. 148:8), as St. David, glorify the name of God. It’s the same in our lives: what seems difficult and regrettable to us, that same thing can be a direct action of God’s Providence for us, an instrument of His glory in us and our prosperity. Ah, brothers, the time has passed when we were all created for joy alone, brought to dwell in the paradise of sweetness: having ourselves sowed the path to bliss with thorns, we should not grumble if Providence leads us this way; glory to Him and good to us, if at least we do not go astray from him. Let our feet bleed: this is the path of our Savior, it leads to the heavenly fatherland. Our heart has become so coarse that the law of truth and righteousness can only be inscribed on it again, as in the midst of storms and thunder (Ex. 19:16-18). Let us be attentive to these menacing voices, and we, like the ancient Israelites, will understand in them the voice of the Lord our God, the God of our fathers, punishing us in small ways, in order to have mercy on us with great mercy; We will see that accidents, from which our hearts once groaned, later turned to the greatest good for us and for our neighbors - that the fulfillment of many desires, which we tried with all our might, but without success, to put into action, would be evil for us and would entail disastrous consequences - that the very thing for which we prayed, what we asked for, what we worked on in vain, contained destruction for us, and then, from What we turned away from, what we looked at as harm and punishment, was a true blessing that turned out to be in the change of our way of thinking, in the correction of our behavior, we will see and revere the Providence that has been good to us! What other shortcomings are those who seek traces of Providence in their lives exposed to? For the most part, his actions are limited to himself, and in himself - to temporary benefits, bodily life. What need is it that our well-known disaster was very instructive for others, and some, taking advantage of your experience, turned to the right path? If we ourselves have not felt significant benefit from it, then this is enough for us not to see Providence in it. What does it matter that some sad cases were true healing for our souls, they tore before our eyes the veil behind which our spiritual destruction was hidden, and returned to us a virtue that had long been lost? If they upset our external state; if the lesson they taught is associated with damage to our health or honor, then these cases are not from God, they befell us without Providence. These are the rules of judgment of our pride, of our inattention to the good of our neighbors and to our own good of our soul! Is it possible that God’s Providence should conform to them? Is it really because “our eye is evil” (Matt. 20:15), and does He need to stop being good? No, it is enough that we limit everything to ourselves, do not look at the needs and benefits of others, we would like to place ourselves as the focus and end of the entire human race and all events in the world: the love of God is higher than all of us, and therefore embraces all our brethren, through the misfortunes of one it teaches others, with the happiness of some it edifies all, in order to thus unite us all again, who are constantly breaking the union of unity. It is enough that we ourselves care more about the body than about the soul, that we cling madly to the temporal and do not think about the eternal. Providence is eternal and holy; and therefore, in all his destinies about us, he means not so much temporary bliss as eternal, not so much well-being in the body, but well-being in the spirit. Let your outer man be amazed, let the flesh suffer at least as much as it suffered in Job: if the spirit is able, if the inner, “hidden man of the heart” (1 Pet. 3:4) and grows; then we are prosperous. This is the image of Providence’s judgment of us! How much, if not everything, would appear completely different to us in our life if we constantly applied this holy way of judgment to it! No matter how many times, considering our life, we are forced to say to ourselves: “This is how it had to be, for we were created not for earth, but for heaven!” So, the Wisdom of God should not have allowed this; for she cares not only about me, but about everyone!” With so many reasons preventing us from seeing traces of God's Providence in our lives, is it surprising, brethren, that many do not see it? They don’t see because they don’t know their life well, they’re not attentive to themselves; they do not see, because they stop at the surface of events, do not penetrate to their foundation, where the hand of Providence is hidden; they do not see, because they want to see when the gaze is darkened, not where it should be, not in the form in which Providence reveals itself; Finally, they do not see, because judgment about the ways of Providence is controlled by pride and passions. Let us free ourselves, brothers, from these shortcomings; in judging the ways of God, let us unswervingly follow the opposite rules; and we will soon learn by experience that the Lord “is not far from each of us” (Acts 17:27). And how can He be distant? Isn't He omnipresent? Can His wisdom and omnipotence remain without action anywhere? Only the pagan gods were idle spectators of human fate: our Heavenly Father continually does so (John 5:17). Only the Baals and Beelphegors could sleep: our Provider “will not sleep, but the guardian of Israel will fall asleep!” (Ps. 120:4). How can He be far from us? Isn't He our Creator? Isn't He our Father? Do we remember the Creator so much that we forget Him about whom we “live, move, and are” (Acts 17:28)? Do we know the Father so much that we doubt His care for the children? Earthly fathers, like men, are evil, but do not give stones to their children instead of bread (Luke 11:11): Will the Heavenly Father do this, He who can raise up children from stone (Matthew 3:9)? How can He be far from us, so many blessings! What did He not give us as a pledge of His care for us? Earth? - the man was first appointed king of it. Heaven? - it has long been promised as an inheritance to the faithful children. Angels? - they serve our salvation. We will demand anything: we will get everything! To assure us, is it necessary that He Himself come down from heaven, live with us, even die for us? And it's done! The Son of God came down from heaven, dwelt among men, and out of love for us laid down His life for us all. After this, who can doubt the care of Providence? With this faith in the Providence of God and with this disposition to know it in the adventures of your life, we wish, brothers, to enter the gates of the New Year, firmly believing that the Lord Himself will not hesitate to reveal the traces of His fatherly Providence to those of you who, without closing your eyes with doubts, will always be ready to kiss His wise right hand with reverence, no matter how it reveals its presence, openly or secretly, in accordance with expectation or against it, with gifts of love and mercy or with deprivation and admonishing blows. Amen. You might be interested in: