Flight Into Egypt
one
Have you ever just had your plans blown out of the water? Well, two days ago, on February 2, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the 4th Joyful Mystery, which took place 40 days after the birth of Jesus on Christmas. At the Presentation the well-known holy people, Simeon and Anna, made amazing prophecies about the child Jesus. Once this word got back to King Herod, adding to the report of the Magi looking for the new-born king of the Jews, Herod who was an obsessed paranoid murderer, sent out his troops to kill all the male children in the region of Bethlehem. At this, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph saying: “Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him'. So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead.”
They immediately have to flee to Egypt leaving everything behind. Whatever Joseph and Mary’s plans were, they are blown to pieces now.
We may not suddenly become refugees, but our plans get blown up: a sudden onset of illness, the diagnosis of a disease, an accident, the loss of a major client, the shift in a market, a failure that could not be foreseen.
Then what do we do? Well, we have to make a choice. We can be overwhelmed with the emotions of anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, sadness or even paralysis. Or we can make the choice to trust that God’s got this. This event and our future-well-being are in the hands of God. Therefore, all will be well. God has the matter in hand. We need fear nothing. We are safe.
two
One of the most difficult things in life is to surrender to God when He allows unforeseen people and events to change our plans. This is where I say to God: “Don’t you know the problems you are causing me here? Why did you allow this and at this time?” As if there would ever be the right time for this sort of thing.
This is when I need to be reminded of the fact that, when I am in control of the universe, things don’t go so well. It is far better that God is in control of the world. And nothing can happen that God does not will directly or allow. So, if God allows something in my life that I cannot change, then He is permitting it and He will work it for the very best.
Yes, God allows evil to happen to us. But God is so all powerful and good that He turns all things to good for those who cooperate with Him.
St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."
three
In all that we cannot control we are invited to surrender to God? Many people however misinterpret surrender to mean giving up and they don’t want to give up. Neither do I. I am a fighter. Rather, surrendering to God means to make the choice to let God do what He wants in your life through people and events that are out of your control. Now you have to make a choice and take action. You can resist and rebel against God; you can fold up and quit; or you can make the choice to go with what God is doing. You can accept it (choose it), chose what God has allowed with Trust in Divine Providence. And then cooperate with God by saying “Yes” to His will in four ways:
1. By doing the duty that now lies before you or the inspirations to follow,
2. By enduring the suffering He allows,
3. By delighting in the pleasures that flow from good,
4. And sometimes we are called not to act, or rather wait patiently and let God act while He takes care of everything.
Surrender is not giving up and it is certainly not passive. It is a very active choice to let God do what He wants through people and events out of your control. We must then exert all our effort to cooperate with God, saying yes to His will and doing what follows – even if it takes us to Egypt.
four
Nothing can happen that God does not will directly or allow. If God allows something in your life, and you can’t change it, then God will work this for your greatest good and for those around you if you cooperate with Him.
But we are free. We can get angry, anxious, bitter or paralyzed and ruin the good God wants to do.
Or we can make the decision to say: “O.K. God, lets see what you got. If you have allowed this, then you can make it great, no matter how painful it is. So lets see what you can do!”
God works all things for good. That’s His MO. Trust Him.
five
What most prevents us from becoming saints is undoubtedly the difficulty we have in consenting fully to everything that happens to us, not, as we have seen, in the sense of fatalistic passivity, but in the sense of a trusting total abandonment into the hands of our Father God. What often happens is that when we are confronted with painful occurrences, we either rebel, or endure them unwillingly, or resign ourselves to them passively.
But God invites us to a much more positive and fruitful attitude: that of Therese of Lisieux, who said: “I choose it all!” I choose everything that God wants for me. I won’t content myself with merely enduring, but by a free act of my will; I decide to choose what I have not chosen. Externally it doesn’t change anything about the situation, but it does change me. This consent, inspire by love and trust, makes me free an active and enables God to draw good out of everything that happens to us whether good or bad.