A Quiet Voice

Life's disappointments tax our faith in God's plan. And the temptation is to let our faith lapse and say to ourselves, "Since I don't know I won't believe. Since I can't see I won't hope."

In my case, in that temptation I heard a small voice saying to me, "Stay with the plan. You will gain all, including all that you think you have lost, all that you hope for, and even more, if you persevere."

In this season of waiting, I am trying to place my trust in that surprising, most welcome quiet voice.  It struck me that it is like the Lord's promise to David in the first reading from this 3rd Sunday of Advent (2 Samuel 7).  The Lord responds to David's wish to build Him a permanent house by promising to establish for David a house and kingdom that "shall endure forever before me", a promise far greater than David could ever have imagined.

The quote from St. Vincent de Paul offered in my commentary (Living with Christ) reinforces the point: "Surely the great secret of the spiritual life is to abandon to God all that we love by abandoning ourselves to all that God wishes, in perfect confidence that all will be for the best; and hence it has been said that all things turn to good for those who serve God."

What a gift is the Lord's promise in response to my fiat! In His economy, sacrificing my will for His will reap unimagined blessings.  I will try to cradle the Lord's promise in my heart this Christmas season.  A happy new year is sure to follow its birth in me!