By Most Rev. Dr. Yvon Ambroise, Bishop of Tuticorin –
Each and every heart should really desire from God abundant graces and particularly in moments of prayer. As Luke11: 9-10 says: “So I say to you, ask and it will be given you; search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened”.
“Lord! inspire in me while fulfilling all my decisions and grant me the grace of never neglecting any of your internal inspirations in me”.
We need to implore God such a grace in all the circumstances of our lives. We should be alert particularly to ask for it in all our important choices and during moments we feel that our life slackens in religious demands of God. These are the moments to revitalize our lives. The best choice would be even to take a few days of spiritual retreat alone or with some spiritual Father. We should learn in those moments to intensify our prayer life with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to open ourselves to God and to His inspirations.
Can an ordinary Christian do it in his life? The answer is “yes” when we look at the prayer of Jesus to His Father in Gethsemani. Let me quote a very valid portion from Henri J. Nouwen in his book “Can you drink the cup?” (Pauline Publication, Bandra, 1996,p.33) “In the midst of Jesus‟ anguished prayer asking His Father to take His cup of sorrow away, there was one moment of consolation.
Only the Evangelist Luke mentions it. He says: “Then an angel appeared to him coming from heaven to give him strength” (Lk 22:43). In the midst of sorrows is consolation, in the midst of darkness is light, in the midst of the despair is hope, in the midst of Babylon there is a glimpse of Jerusalem, and in the midst of the army of demons is the consoling angel. The cup of sorrow, inconceivable as it seems, is also the cup of joy. Only when we discover this in our own life can we consider drinking it”.
There is no moment left in our lines when we should feel we should not ask God even the impossible like Jesus. It is very rare that God does not respond in such moments through any event or person in our life. It is the faith and confidence of our prayer that makes itself be heard and answered by a loving God.
Taking a Firm Decision of Refusing Nothing to God
God does not appear in front of us and would ask us to do something for him. It is a particular attitude that we should establish in us. Thus a firm determination to follow the Word of God in all events and circumstances as well as accepting wholeheartedly the inspirations coming from God, in our intense moments of a heart to heart talk with God is a very great need. In all these, God will see our inner disposition of our total docility to God and He will surely bestow on us in abundance His inspirations and His strength to accomplish them.
Someone can normally doubt whether such a thing could happen, given one’s weak human nature and its attractions to which a person could easily be enslaved and sin against God. Even if it happens He would be ready to come forward to lift us up again by His graces to restore us back to His friendship. Let us not entertain any doubt or fear on this matter. As St. Francis of Sales said that we should love obedience to the will of God rather than fear that we would violate it.
We should be firm in our mind and heart to give ourselves to God. But we should not forget that the devil will try its best to distract us and make us fail in it. We should remind ourselves of God’s words of comfort to St. Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness so I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (II Cor. 12:8-9).
There is another step to see that God would act in our favour. It is to take a determined and conscious decision of obeying God in everything in our life. Just as Christ could say even at the crucial moment at Gethsemani after addressing his own desire of getting out of the choice of the cross He firmly added this prayer to His Father “… Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done”. (Lk. 12:42).
One of the difficulties in our lives is the tendency to presuppose that what we think would be the best. How can we who cannot predict about the next moment that an act of our decision for the future would be good for us? Since God is the author of life and to Him our future is clear, it is always better to leave it to God or ask for His light and guidance.
As for us, let us decide about the present in a very firm way that we would refuse nothing to God. This will help the Father to act through His Spirit to organize things that He thinks, is best for our future.