“Patience, prayer, and silence — these are what give strength to the soul.” (Saint Faustina, Diary 944).
I was having a miserable day the other day. It was not anything new. It was not anything special. It was not anything unexpected. But it was a truly miserable day.
All of a sudden, the same old annoyances seemed so great to me that I could not possibly bear to continue for one more moment in that misery.
Now, while I was having that very human moment of weakness, I received the Grace to consider Christ. Here I was – unable to bear just a small bit of hurt and misery – and there He Hangs with all the suffering of the sin of the world upon Him.
Saint Faustina wrote in her diary entry 944, “There are moments when I mistrust myself, when I feel my own weakness and wretchedness in the most profound depths of my own being, and I have noticed that I can endure such moments only by trusting in the infinite mercy of God. Patience, prayer, and silence — these are what give strength to the soul.”
And I have been reflecting on that today.
You see, when I experience a moment of weakness, I immediately feel that moment will last eternally. And it is actually the complete opposite of what will actually happen. In fact, this is evidence of the work of the Evil One. You see, the misery that seems so overwhelming in the moment is actually the only fleeting thing. Even a lifetime of misery and suffering if only a moment in eternity.
And Christ understands that on the Cross – and the Saints understand that too.
How else could God Himself endure not only the relative agony of Human Life compared with the joys of Heaven? And how could the Saints suffer all sorts of anguish and trauma and remain faithful?
Well – they understood that all trauma on Earth is temporal. It is temporary. It passes with time. Even if a grief remains for a lifetime and is never appeased in this earthly life, it will be healed in Heaven.
So, when bad things happen – even terribly terribly bad things – I must pray for the Grace to see those things as merely temporal and passing. And that refers not only to the small little aches that build up over time that make a particular thing or task a true misery but also to the great griefs of our lives. It applies to the miserable loss of a loved one. It applies to the breakup of a relationship. It applies to every misery of this life.
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about my miseries. Because it seems to me that I must constantly reflect on the temporal nature of suffering, so that when the wound becomes greater than I have the ability to bear, I shall be able to bear it as a passing suffering, rather than an eternal grief…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.