A Consoling Thought on This Sunday During Our Glorious Easter Season

Our glorious Easter Season continues with this consoling thought from Father John Grou. He begins with St. Paul, then makes sure we get the consoling thought behind the great saint's words in Cornithians:

“Listen to the words of St. Paul – it is to you he speaks: God is faithful, he says; He will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Cor. 10: 13) 

“Weigh well these words, for they will fill you with consolation and confidence in the midst of the hardest trial. God is faithful: He owes it to Himself, He owes it to His own promises, He owes it to his love for you, to succor you in any danger that threatens your soul. His glory is interested in helping you, because sin is an offence against Himself. He knows that you can do nothing without Him, and that you will most certainly fall if He abandons you. If He failed you in these critical moments He would not be Himself.
“He will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear. The faithfulness of God towards us does not consist in delivering us from all temptation – for that would be to deprive Himself of His own glory, and to deprive us of the merit attached to the victory – but His faithfulness consists in never allowing the temptation to go beyond our strength to resist. God knows perfectly, and infinitely better than we do, what our strength really is, for we derive our strength solely from Him and His grace.” (Father John Grou, S.J., 1731-1803) 

Have you noticed how current or "modern" Father's words seem? He wrote these over 200 years ago. And yet there's nothing archaic about what he says or how he says it. We could be sitting in a room with him right now, having a conversation. Doesn't it read that way?

The consolation his words provide should brighten up our whole outlook on life, don't you think? After all, who has not struggled with temptation with at least an occasional sense of frustration. Indeed, some of us may throw up our hands when we struggle with a temptation or temptations over and over again. Why won't God grant us a respite? We've prayed so hard for relief! Father provides the answer.

And his answer is based on words St. Paul wrote centuries before. So this struggle we all have is nothing unique to each of us. We all share fallen human nature.

We can connect all this with our glorious Easter Season. Our Lord suffered and died that we might be saved from our sins. But that didn't mean we would be free from them, or at least free from the temptations to sin that seem never to leave us.

Thus the need for reassuring words of consolation from St. Paul, related through Father Grou. 

He rose from the dead to declare a once and final victory over sin. His Glorious Resurrection lifts up our hearts and minds such that we can confidently anticipate an eternal life spent in the Light of that Glory - in Heaven with Him, with the Father, with the Holy Spirit and, yes, with our loved ones. Such thoughts come with a stiff dose of confidence, if we allow them to sink in and penetrate our hearts and minds.

So when the struggle seems - and feels - never-ending against temptation, we can recall these words. We can bathe in their consolation. We can accept our struggle, face our temptations with the confidence that God will, absolutely will, provide the strength we need to overcome them. 

A very consoling thought, isn't it?

 

Happy Easter!