Our misery and God’s mercy

THIS is something that we should always bear in mind, never daring to take it for granted. This is the basic reality about our life, about our human condition here in this world. It is what should shape the basic attitude we have toward ourselves, toward God and everybody and everything else in our life.

We will always be hounded by our human misery that can come to us in many, many ways. Remember St. Paul saying, “I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.” (Rom 7,23)

We should never forget this fact of life. No matter how much we try, the tentacles and claws of evil will somehow catch us or at least threaten us. But instead of getting trapped in anguish, sadness or going wild because of it, we should use that reality as a strong reason to go to God, appealing always for his mercy.

We should just apply that Pauline advice: “It’s when I am weak that I am strong. (2 Cor 12,11) And that’s because St. Paul used his weaknesses and all the evils that hounded him as the very reason and stimulus for him to go to God.

We should neither forget that God’s mercy will always be around too. As St. Paul also once said, “Where sin has abounded, grace has abounded even more.” (Rom 5,20)

Given this fundamental reality of our human condition here, what we should try to do, if only to minimize the incidence of evil, sin and temptations, is to be always aware of our weaknesses, our miseries, and to use them as the reason to always be with God.

Our usual problem is that many times we dare to be on our own, and to regard God as not so important, not so relevant and useful in our life and our activities. We can even go to the extent of considering God as a hindrance, an obstacle to our quest for development, for freedom, for self-fulfillment.

This is the attitude that we should try our best to discard. It simply does not conform to the basic truth about who we are. We are nothing without God. We are supposed to live our life always with God. Without God, we would be living in some fantasy world that cannot hold on for long. That would be our misery of miseries.

Precisely because of this attitude, we fall into some kind of bipolar life. When things are bad, we would easily fall into anguish, self-pity, depression and the possibility of committing suicide. And when things are good, chances are we get spoiled via pride, vanity, arrogance, greed, etc.

What we should try to develop is the attitude that would make us always aware of our miseries and our need for God. These two aspects of our life should be together. Whether times are good or bad, this should always be in our mind: I am nothing without God. Even in my good fortune, I will always end up corrupted if I dare to be without God.

It would be good if we could install some means or strategies in our lifestyle that would sustain this kind of attitude. Thus, there is always need for a time for prayer, and to meditate on the basic truths about ourselves that are spelled out in our Christian faith.

And then develop the appropriate attitudes, skills and virtues. In this regard, we need to realize more deeply how God makes himself tangibly accessible to us through the Church, especially through the sacraments, and among the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist.

These facilities are often taken for granted, since they are not properly understood and appreciated. It is indeed a pity that that seems to be the prevalent condition even among Catholics at this time…