His love for us
A Reflection by Fred Schaeffer, OFS
Mankind's greatest tragedy is that many of us are unhappy and it is totally unnecessary. In our own pain we have the tendency to lash out and hurt people we hold dear. When many of us hurt, the whole world needs to pay attention, but in truth that will never happen, so we are alone in our hurt and we are miserable. Then someone says a good word, and the mood passes, and we say ... it wasn't so bad after all. But what about the people we have hurt in the meantime? Have we made peace with them?
Heaven, the place of ecstatic happiness, is so desirable, that we forget the struggle of Jesus Christ whose crucifixion brought us a step closer to that beautiful goal. So what is a little suffering on our part? If there never was any suffering on this earth, what would be have to look forward to, in heaven? There are many good things that can come from suffering, particularly when we bear our troubles patiently and with humility. Tremendous Grace is the result of patient endurance of pain and frustration, and this Grace can be used in an intention for someone else’ suffering. For example, each time we pray for another person, we give them a little from ourselves. How beautiful if our suffering, born in patience and love, could be the grace needed by other people who suffer too. That is what Jesus means, to give your life for your neighbor. We can't give our life yet, because we are still alive, so we do the next best thing - we offer our earthly suffering for that other person's need.
People can be real irritable when they are sick, but as caregivers (if we function in this role) we will have to learn to cope with that. Do your job joyfully and offer all these little inconveniences for the person who may be the cause, or for the souls in purgatory. That they may be able to enter Heaven very soon.
Bottled up anger can harm us physically and mentally, but Jesus tells us not to get angry. Some people let out their anger on the road (e.g. road rage) which is not advisable in any case. Turn that anger around and instead, pray for the person who may have caused your frustration. There are all sorts of ways to cope with anger, getting angrier and more frustrated is dangerous and unnecessary.
For me, less is better. Live a simple life. Love God, and through His Love, love everyone else. That is, treat them right. And treat them evenly - do not favor one person over the other. Treat people in a mature way, be humble or meek, but do not be a doormat either. In my younger years, working in downtown New York City, for a brokerage firm, and being just about the youngest or most recent employee they had, it was always, "Fred, do this, or that, or get coffee for everyone." Well, I was good-natured and somewhat shy, so I did. There came a point however, that I felt, enough is enough. I felt I had ‘paid my dues’, so to speak. And I was no longer available for coffee runs. I was with that company for 10 years and I breathed a sign of relief when one day, after a particularly contentious morning, I said to myself - I don't have to work here. And I quit. About an hour or two later I had found another job! But that doesn't happen today anymore. One cannot take chances in quitting first and seeking a position afterwards. Nowadays, if one wishes to depart, it is necessary to quietly seek a new position before quitting the old one. Not an easy task, but if you're good at what you do, it can be done.
In those days in the mid-(19)sixties, I worked in a so-called "wire room" - as a teletype operator, basically very nerve-racking work, sending buy and sell orders to the floor of stock exchanges and other messages. Nerve-racking, because the tiniest mistakes could mean a lot of money lost. So you were always under pressure. Working in such an atmosphere could cause some major temper tantrums... and we did everything possible to avoid those volcanic eruptions. Those were also the days that I wasn't particularly going to church, which seemed to go hand-in-hand with the locale. Now I think differently about those things, and even if I were young, I would studiously avoid working in the Wall Street sector of employment. Isn't it easier when you're older to look back in hindsight and realize how much better it could have been, if you weren't so headstrong?
But I am, as usual, getting off the subject. Nothing that God has made is evil. God is never the cause of evil. We are. OK, maybe Adam and Eve were, since their sin, Original Sin, caused all this misery in the first place. But we have to live with it, no matter what we do. Likewise, the Lord permits things to happen, perhaps a Hurricane that robs people of their lives and property, or at least, He does not stop the Hurricane. If he were to stop that Hurricane for me, someone else He loves would get hurt. That isn't right either. Let us instead look for the good, so that under God ours may be a happy life. And if that life gets sadly interrupted, we pick up the pieces and we begin again. If St. Francis of Assisi taught us anything at all, it is in starting again for, as he said so often, "until now we have done nothing."
Our Lord loves us deeply, each one of us... now we should be Christ to one another! Meanwhile, please stay well, and trust in the Lord always.
My Lord and My All.
Fred Schaeffer, OFS
2008 Rev. 4/17/24 [source: Godslov3.htm]