Taking A Step Backwards
It’s important sometimes to take a step backwards. We’re so used to marching forwards through the forest of life, ploughing through the trees that get in our way and block our view, just following the path we happen to be on because it’s the only thing left to do. We’re so enmeshed in our worldly worries that we lose track of the big picture—why we’re walking this path in the first place, what the purpose of this forest is, and why so many trees and other obstacles get in our way as we try to get to the edge of the forest and into the wide open spaces of eternity. Our feelings of helplessness, frustration, depression and anger stem from this inability to keep our mind on that big picture, but we just can’t see the forest for the trees. And that’s why a step backwards now and again helps us to keep our perspective. It gives us the opportunity to review the meaning of our life and the wisdom of God’s plan.
We’re at one of those crucial moments in history right now. So rather than succumb to the failures of the world around us, let’s try to take that step backwards and get a better view of the whole picture of what it all means. It’s time to get to grips with the situation we’re in and decide what we’re going to do about it.
The readings at Mass are, as usual, our key to opening the door of enlightenment. The nobleman of the Gospel, whose son is sick at Capernaum, asks our Lord to heal his son. Jesus reprimands him, “Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.” But the man persists and Jesus finally sends him on his way, telling him that his son liveth. And the nobleman realizes he must make that act of faith and believe without seeing a sign in advance. “The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him” and he went home, to find his son was healed at the exact time he had first believed. Here is our example that we must follow. Our world is sick, and we seek signs and wonders, begging God to heal it and miraculously restore the Church and Society to the common sense and moral rectitude that used to be the norm. God’s response to us must be similar to the Gospel story—are we of so little faith that we simply persist in asking God for the same thing without actually believing he will hear our prayer without first giving us signs and wonders?
“The days are evil,” says St. Paul in the Epistle today. Surely, our own days are even more evil than when he first wrote those words! All the more reason for following his advice that we walk “circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” We must not be “unwise”, he warns us, “but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Ah, there’s the key to our response to this wretched world of ours, we must understand God’s will in what is happening in these days of evil.
We must never forget that no matter what God might “want”, he has nevertheless created us with free will. And he permits us to use that free will… freely. Man has indulged his free will for thousands of years, and this misuse is finally dragging us down the road of perdition. It is our not our job to complain to God that he gave us free will. We shouldn’t be begging him to interfere in our free will from on high, otherwise how could we freely love him? God will not stop us from doing evil, but if we take it too far, it’s reasonable to suppose he will bring his entire creation to its ultimate and inevitable end. He has known from all eternity that Adam and his descendants would abuse his gift of free will by doing the things they want and not what God wants. He has foreseen and permits this. He has also known from all eternity the final ending to the great story of Creation and man’s abuse of it. It’s an ending that we may presume will not be particularly pleasant for those who live to see it.
Should this be a reason for bemoaning the fate of the world or our own poor lives? On the contrary, says St. Paul, we must be filled with the Spirit, “singing and making melody in your heart.” We must be “giving thanks unto God, always, and for all things.” For all things, including the mess the world is in. And why? Because this is what God had always intended to permit. He has always known that man would finally follow his free will to his own destruction. All we see around us, all those trees that block our vision wherever we turn, they are all there as part of God’s great plan for mankind, obstacles along the path we follow, temptations leading us to follow other paths. They exist to test us, to allow us to show God our faith in his divine Providence. In the midst of our great dark forest, we should rejoice and thank God that we are able still to obey his commandments and follow the path of his will, without seeking for signs, miracles and wonders, but patiently, submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God. This is the path that will lead us home. We just need to remind ourselves now and again that even though it may lead us through the valley of the shadow of death, we should fear no evil. So take that step backwards today, and rejoice and give thanks that you’re on the right path. And if you’re not, the Confessional is open after Mass!