“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Luke 22:42
I met a woman from Massachusetts yesterday. She stopped to remark about my truck’s window decal – “stand for the flag, kneel for the cross.” We ended up talking for quite awhile. She told me her son has Cerebral Palsy and asked why God doesn’t listen to her prayers to heal him? “He seems to let bad people do what they want, but for me, nothing.”
This is a question many Catholics have asked through the years. It’s above my pay grade to respond. But, I told her that God’s biggest desire is that we trust Him in everything. When we are in a trial, standing inside the fire, and He doesn’t seem to be listening it is so difficult to keep faith and simply trust. But, trust we must. For in trust we see that giving full control over to God takes so much pressure off us. We don’t have to carry the world on our shoulders, God holds all the galaxies in His hand.
When God seems not to be listening, first, trust that He always hears and second, trust that you are in a time of growth. Trust.
Jesus Himself gives us a great lesson in His agony in the garden. He didn’t desire to suffer what was coming upon Him in just minutes. He turned to God and begged to “remove this cup from me.” We don’t hear the Father answering Him in this prayer. The Father is silent in this moment of His Son’s great need. What we hear is Jesus surrendering to the Father’s Will – “yet, not my will but yours be done.” And, in this surrender to an unanswered prayer, Jesus gives us an image to live by as He gives freedom to the whole world.
I know all too well the trap that rests in our path when we don’t trust God when He is silent. And, I know the grace and blessing of letting go of control to give over to trust in God’s Divine Will come what may.
Though we may live at times in and through our own passion and crosses, we are an Easter people. We know the dawn will come with great brilliance. We must trust what we know is fact. Even if the tomb seems to slam shut behind us, leaving us in darkness.
When the darkness closes in and God seems silent, repeat the prayer Jesus had signed on the Divine Mercy image, “Jesus, I trust in You.”
I could see the words that seemed lacking brought this woman to tears. She realized that her son was held in God’s hand and cherished more by the Father than all the galaxies and stars. She realized the deep love of her son and the faith she could have would show others God’s presence. She came to see through the story of my Road of Faith experience that God is always listening and simples whispers, “trust Me.”
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