“Abandonment into God’s hands”; beautiful words, however, difficult to put them into practice.
Newsroom (September 05, 2021 10:07, Gaudium Press) As we read the Old Testament, one of the characters that most stands out in our eyes is that of one of the greatest prophets chosen by God to guide the people of the covenant, Moses, to whom God himself gave the tablets of the Law.
The hand of God always accompanied him in such a way that, taking Moses as his instrument, the prodigies multiplied: rescuing the Jews from the yoke of the Pharaoh of Egypt by sinking their chariots in the Red Sea; feeding the people with manna in the desert; covering them with a cloud during the scorching daytime sun and, at night, accompanying them with a pillar of fire that illuminated them… All these portents, Divine Providence performed them when Moses begged the Lord for them.
Another unheard-of example of divine benevolence, when the thirsty people urged Moses to implore God to quench their thirst, he interceded for them to the Lord, who told him that water would come out of the rock.
However, Moses struck the rock twice, so the miracle did not take place immediately. The Creator, seeing this, punished the prophet of Israel by making him simply see the land of promise, without entering it.
When we see this attitude of Moses, a question arises: “Why the hesitation before the expectation of a new miracle, when all the previous ones had taken place just as God had said?
Did he lack a certain virtue found only in those who have reached the highest heights of perfection in the spiritual life, namely the virtue of abandonment in God’s hands?
Such an interior disposition asks that we have a complete conformity to the divine designs; a tranquility during trials and a faith in the midst of the gloom of uncertainties, just as did Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles who, after having persecuted the Church, converted, was only concerned to know: “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
Why then should we not long for such abandonment, willing to accept all the bitterness and suffering that God asks of us? “If we accept the goods from God, should we not also accept the evils?”
Por Andrés Sierra
