“Know that I am with you; I will protect you wherever you go,
and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you
until I have done what I promised you.”
Gen. 28:15
As we begin another week, the words of the Lord to Jacob from our first reading today really summarize something I’ve been thinking and praying a lot about. He tells Jacob that He will protect him, but I believe the more important words in this passage are “Know that I am with you … I will never leave you.”
God does protect Jacob, but his life was no bed of roses. His father liked his brother better; said brother threatens to kill him; he is tricked by his father-in-law and ends up with the wrong wife; his only daughter is raped; his sons deceive and murder the entire community of the man who defiled their sister, and as a result, Jacob is forced to move on again to a different place, etc., etc.
Did God protect Jacob? Yes, but not from suffering. In other words, he did not have an easy life where everything went along smoothly. And in his times of trial, Jacob may not have always felt like the Lord was protecting him. This reminds me of a somewhat hilarious quote I read recently from Peter Kreeft,
“Expect the world to be Heaven, and it will feel like Hell.
Expect it to be Purgatory, and it will feel like Heaven.”[1]
Though we can experience glimpses and reflections of heaven here on earth, this world is temporal and we were not made for here, as C.S. Lewis says so eloquently:
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy,
the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”[2]
Because we were created for heaven, we long for it! We long for what we imagine to be the “ideal,” which to us, since we live in the world, means health, happiness, love, security, success, recognition, peace, justice … all things that make us feel good, that temporarily ease the longing in the deepest part of our souls, the longing for heaven and union with God that will only ever be completely fulfilled in the next world. Peter Kreeft continues,
“The two most salient facts about Purgatory
are pain and hope, suffering and meaning.”
So when pain and suffering (the exact opposite of our “ideal”) comes our way — illness, sorrow, loneliness, uncertainty, poverty, obscurity, violence, and injustice — it’s so easy to focus on what seems to be God looking the other way, God abandoning us, ignoring our plight, leaving us unprotected. … He’s not. He’s right there with us, walking with us, wanting to pour our His mercy on us, waiting for us to open up our hearts to receive all the mercy He is longing to give! But, at the risk of sounding negative and gloomy, the simple fact is that we are living in the vale of tears, and suffering is an unavoidable part of our lives on earth. As Thomas Merton noted so profoundly,
“The truth that many people never understand is that
the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer,
because smaller and more insignificant things start to
torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.” [3]
When we suffer, our natural tendency as human beings is to dislike it intensely, because, well, it hurts. But one of the reasons that suffering is so painful to us is because we feel that someone (God) ought to protect us, and our definition of “protection” is different from God’s. We think “protection” and envision a picture perfect life here on earth where we get everything we want; God thinks “protection” and envisions our hearts in His from now until the end of time.
This is why we can’t forget the other part of the passage from today’s reading, the most important part: “Know that I am with you … I will never leave you.” Even if we may not always be shielded from suffering, our God is always with us! And when we hide ourselves in His merciful Heart and choose to trust in His great love despite difficult circumstances, He offers us hope to counter the pain and can give meaning to any suffering, great or small. As the beautiful psalm today says,
“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
Say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Ps. 91: 1-2
The more we can consciously dwell in the shelter of the Lord, take refuge in Him, and really abide in His Heart — the place of true safety — the more our earthly lives will feel like heaven, because we will slowly be learning how to remain in union with God, trusting in His mercy and growing in faith and confidence. This must become our way of existing, our “mode of being” (to steal an expression from Pope John Paul II)!
For further meditation this week, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite songs that has been a wonderful reminder to me of the Lord’s faithfulness and enduring presence:
I Am Not Alone.
“If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe,
I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown:
that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.”Julian of Norwich
[1] Peter Kreeft, Practical Theology: Spiritual Direction from St. Thomas Aquinas
[2] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
[3] Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain
