Competition

I have never had the Patience of the Virgin, who stands at the Foot of the Cross, silently accenting to the Holy Will of God…

At the Foot of the Cross (Bernadette Carstensen)

I have been reflecting on what it really means to do the Holy Will of God.  After all, it is one thing to say that we will follow God’s Will and quite another to endure it.  I mean, God’s Will does not always come wrapped in a bouquet of flowers.  It is not always easy to recognise or digest.  In fact, it is virtually impossible to see it with our human eyes.

Sometimes the Will of God will never reveal itself to us during our Earthly life.  Perhaps it will be hidden even in eternity?  But this does not mean that God turns everything to the GOOD.

I am thinking of some things that are God’s Will.  Sometimes, people who we love are sick and suffer.  Sometimes, they become well and healthy and sometimes they become more sick and die.  Sometimes – even when we pray with all our might – God allows them to suffer and die.  And there is nothing that we can do to stop this.  Human beings can fly into space and land on the moon, but we still have not worked out how to stop death…

And when these sad and difficult things happen, I find myself railing at God.  How could He?  It is too hard.  Why would He allow that to someone who He loves?

And yet, Christ Himself was subjected to this.  The suffering and death of Christ was not from a textbook.  It did not look like something planned and organised.  Rather, it looked like terrible – unimaginable – injustice.  It looked like the wrongful conviction and murder of an innocent man by corrupt officials and politicians who were more concerned with inconvenience than the administration of justice.  It looked like the ruin of an innocent man’s reputation and the destruction of His Mother’s life.

And even THIS – this terrible thing – was the Holy Will of God.

This is not to say that God enjoyed the events – He suffered through those events.  But He allowed them because in His Wisdom He can see the bigger picture – so to speak – and He knows that they will bring some good…

The Blessed Virgin stood at the Foot of the Cross and witnessed this Holy Will.  She did not resist it.  She did not call out to her Son to come down.  She stood silently and accepted it.  That means she did not run around and try to get help or convince anyone about what was going on.  Instead, she stood quietly and refused to allow any competition between her desire and God’s Will.

And it is in her lack of competition – in her unwillingness to give in to her own view of what should be done and in accepting THY Will be done, that the Blessed Virgin demonstrates the prayer of her Son when He cried, “Father, if it's your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done.” (Luke 22:42).

And I have been thinking about the competition in my life between God’s Will and mine, and I am ashamed, for I have never watched my innocent Son be crucified, and still I have never had the Patience of the Virgin, who stands at the Foot of the Cross, silently accenting to the Holy Will of God…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.