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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

my name is Nicola, I am a 24 year old boy who matured his faith in the last year, approaching it with seriousness and hope. I would like to find an answer to an important doubt that prevents me from giving my whole heart to prayer and makes me rebel and fall into sin instead.

It has often occurred to me that I see God, the Trinity, as a distant creator who sits in Paradise watching our problems and human issues from above, without intervening in any relevant way, but leaving the dirty work to Mary and her apparitions…

For example, so many people say that God is helping them, however, it’s not like Jesus himself will come down in person to help a soul in great difficulty, like a homeless person in need of affection… It’s as if he only lets human beings take care of earthly problems, but doesn’t care to contribute to that himself.

There is also to add that many people don’t even know that God exists, they don’t have any faith, and therefore they don’t even know how to ask for his help. Nonetheless, these people are still his children and as a father he should give them help and support even if they don’t know He exists.

Thank you very much, Father.

Nicola

Priest’s answer

Dear Nicola,

1. I am overjoyed that the Lord has called you back to Himself and that you are living your life of faith with great seriousness and hope.

I am convinced that you will feel like you are born again and living a completely new life.

What we read in the Holy Scriptures can also be applied to your doubt, “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of (Jesus) Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6).

I hope you are one of those of whom St. Paul speaks when he says, “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18).

2. You present me with two difficult questions concerning this life of faith.

The first: you feel the Holy Trinity as an entity that is far away, dwelling above in Paradise.

The answer to this doubt is: if you live in a state of grace, with your soul clean from grave sin and with a willingness to obey to the word of the Lord in everything, here is what you are promised: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” (Jn. 14:23).

St. John, who heard these words directly from the Lord, will write in his first letter, “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16).

And again, “Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit.” (1 Jn. 4:12-13).

3. In this new experience of faith for you, the Lord is telling you what he once said to St. Catherine of Siena, “Contemplate me in the depths of your heart.”

In your heart the Lord has come to lay the greatest treasure: His presence.

4. When Elizabeth of the Trinity, a young Carmelite saint, discovered this fact, she kept focusing on God contemplating Him within her heart.

She said, “My continual occupation is to re-enter the inner self and lose myself in those who dwell there… I feel Him so alive in my soul that it is enough for me to gather myself to find Him there, within me. And my happiness is complete” (Elizabeth of the Trinity, Letter to Canon Angles, July 15, 1903); 

And again, “I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God and God is in my soul. The day I understood that, everything became clear to me, and I would like to share this secret with all those I love so that they, too, might cling to God through everything, so that this prayer of Christ might be fulfilled: “Father, may they be made perfectly one!” (Elizabeth of the Trinity, Letter to Madame De Sourdon, 1902).

How good it would be if you would also understand this and wanted to reveal this secret to everyone you love!

5. You express the second doubt you are wrestling with, with these words: “so many people say that God is helping them, however, it’s not like Jesus himself will come down in person to help a soul in great difficulty, like a homeless person in need of affection… It’s as if he only lets human beings take care of earthly problems, but doesn’t care to contribute to that himself” 

Yet in last Sunday’s Gospel (24th Sunday of Ordinary Time year C) we heard exactly the opposite: “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4).

According to the interpretation of the Holy Fathers, the 99 sheep left in the wilderness are to be intended as the Angels who are safely in heaven.

And then, he became incarnate, preached, suffered His passion, shed His blood in atonement and rose again from the dead to bring us to eternal life with Himself and our loved ones.

Well, by His passion and death He did not leave us alone to handle the dirty work, but instead He accomplished it Himself in place of everyone else.

And, now that He is in heaven, He never ceases to go looking for the lost sheep until He finds them.

6. He continuously accomplishes this pursuit by his grace, working within the heart of every man.

He works unceasingly within the hearts of some people, so that by their words and deeds they may be a living example of the Gospel for all. These are the people whom He calls to priesthood or to consecrated life.

He continually works within the hearts of other people to call them to open their hearts to His grace. These people are those who have abandoned Him and live far away from Him.

He works in the hearts of all of us to urge us to goodness and retract from evil.

There is no one who is closer than Jesus Christ to every single man!

He does this work continually in you, too: He enlightens your mind with many inspirations and thoughts; He moves your heart to feelings of goodness, patience and good will; He makes you eager to fulfill your mission.

7. Of course, you would like to see the material presence of Jesus as it was before his passion and death. But this is now impossible, as if that were the case, Jesus’ presence would be limited to a specific place.

Whereas thanks to His resurrection, He is now standing beside every man and will go in a tireless search of him until he is found.

At the same time, the Lord does not act by himself, but seeks the cooperation of men. This way, He purifies them, sanctifies them and by their works makes them full of merit to crown them deservingly for eternity.

8. This is what He has done and is doing with you.

The Lord has not forsaken you, although you had forgotten Him.

He came looking for you and did not relinquish until He found you.

Ask Him what St. Paul asked Him at the very moment of conversion, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10).

He will not make you do some dirty work, but holy and meritorious work instead. 

As in fact, his passion was not some type of dirty work, but the most holy one. He also earned for you your conversion, your sanctification, the performance of all good deeds in this life and the crown of righteousness in eternal life.

I bless you, I wish you well and gladly remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo