When the Blessed Virgin appeared to the children in Fatima at the turn of the Twentieth Century, she appeared very sad to them and told them that Christ was sad at having been so offended by mankind.
The other day I felt terribly sad.
There was nothing terribly wrong. And no terrible tragedy. But somehow the worries of my life and the lives surrounding me became all too much to bear and I felt incredibly sad.
It was not severe depression. It was not a manic episode. But nevertheless, the sadness that I felt about all the little bits and pieces in my life seemed to amalgamate into a big ball of sadness and I was left with a feeling in the pit of my stomach that seemed somehow overwhelming.
And as I was sitting in the sadness and feeling what it was that I was feeling in that moment, it occurred to me to pray.
As I was reflecting on the terrible sadness that I felt in that moment, I thought of my Beloved as He had lived His life on Earth, and indeed as He has existed ad infinitum in Heaven…
And I wondered to myself, Does God feel sad?
You see, God is perfect in and of Himself. He did not need to create anything. He was perfectly complete without the Angels and the Saints and the Humans. He was perfectly complete without my miserable little sinful soul. And should I have never existed, He would be perfectly complete in any case. And yet – God created me. Knowingly, and intentionally, and with perfect understanding of all my sins and all my faults and all my past, present and future offences, which I myself can barely remember or understand. And still – knowing all these things – God made me. He chose my soul from the billions upon billions of other possible souls to be born onto this Earth and He chose this place and time for my soul to exist.
And I have been thinking about that...
Surely, God too feels sad sometimes. Perhaps He feels sad most of the time. After all, His existence was certainly affected by the fall of the Angels and later by the fall of humankind. His Only Son had to sacrifice Himself for love of me to atone of the sins that I blithely commit without any consideration for the suffering that I cause.
And surely that must make God feel sad… When the Blessed Virgin appeared to the children in Fatima at the turn of the Twentieth Century, she appeared very sad to them and told them that Christ was sad at having been so offended by mankind.
And I have been thinking about that today, as I have been thinking about that sadness that I felt. For it occurs to me today that no matter how terrible the grief I bear, my Lord’s grief is greater. And the next time I am tempted to feel a little sad, I must remind myself to offer that sadness to God – as a way to carry some of the infinite sadness He must feel at the affronts of humankind…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.