Eternal Designs

     “The action of God upon His saints is most gentle. How He respects our liberty! How He condescends to our weakness! He does not run or jump or act violently. We, being weak creatures, rush; but God works slowly, because He deals with eternity. We bewail the passage of minutes; but God serenely watches the flow of years. We wish to achieve the goal of our desires with a single rush; but God prepares His work gently, nor does our inconstancy weary Him, nor do our failures startle Him, nor do the complicated vicissitudes of life overturn His eternal designs.”                 Archbishop Luis M. Martinez



          Our soul is priceless and fragile, created to spend eternity with God, and we must begin to treat it as such. We need to become gentle with ourselves, as God is. We often beat ourselves up because we fall, without taking into account the times we overcame our weakness. We have to learn to be patient with ourselves, and not expect sainthood to be achieved overnight.


     Because of original sin, our soul is wounded by concupiscence, an inclination toward sin, with which we will have to wrestle till the end of our days. God is well aware of this, and offers to us the grace to overcome ourselves. At times we will be successful, but other times, we won’t. When we fail, we must remember that we are a little child of God, who trips and falls. We must learn to run into His arms and ask for His forgiveness and His understanding, allowing His love to soak into our wounded pride.

     It is the pride in our souls that expects more from ourselves. Humility helps us to recognize that it is our imperfections that will enable us to achieve holiness one day, by throwing ourselves into the mercy of God and depending on His grace. Like God, we must not be startled by our failures, but use them for our benefit. We must not allow the image we see of ourselves to disfigure the image that God holds of us. Becoming the man or women that God has called us to be from all eternity, can be achieved, but it will take openness to grace, time, patience and gentleness on our part.

     So when we lose our patience with our spouse, children, friend or neighbor, when we eat that brownie that was calling our name when we were not hungry, when we bought that item that we really didn’t need, when we spent too much time either watching television, or on the internet, that is the time we need to ask God for His grace and forgiveness. We must not use our faults to give us “license,” to continue in our sin or weakness. Instead, we must learn to “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again,” realizing that sanctity is still obtainable.

     We need to grow in trust, that although our becoming saints will take our cooperation, it depends more upon God and His grace then our meager efforts. We must not ever stop trying to achieve this goal, we must do so with the mind of God, who sees us as we really are, while knowing what we can become.

     God truly loves us! We must come to believe that. Becoming saints is God’s eternal design for each of us. Relax in and relish His love.  
 
     “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn 3 vs 1-2).