DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Our pastor, Father Hector Chiapa is running a 5-part series on Divine Providence in our parish bulletin. It is very worth reading, so I will post it here over the next few weeks. First here is something else.
=============================================
Yesterday was the Super Bowl. It is the day of supreme worship in the religion of the NFL which is becoming a very powerful force in the world of paganism. I can imagine that a youngster about to make his First Holy Communion could more easily list seven NFL quarterbacks than he could the seven sacraments. Or an adolescent about to receive Confirmation would have no problem naming seven NFL coaches, while he would struggle with the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Football has come a long way. I remember well a music class in grade school taught by Miss Shotwell. She was telling us about the college band that played at halftime of a game. The guy I was sitting next to looked over at me and said, “She watches football!” It wasn’t just that it was Miss Shotwell watching football – it was that any girl was watching football.
In a recent Seton School newspaper there was an interview of a new teacher, Mr. See. The writer revealed, in total amazement, that Mr. See does not like football. How can this be?
I wonder if Coloradoans got to vote on next year’s starting quarterback for the Broncos if the turnout at the polls would be greater than it was for electing the governor this past election.
It is with great delight that I can tell you that the tradition begun by Mr. Hadro on Super Bowl Sunday has been continued by Col. Duda. Each year students make sack lunches and collect clothing to distribute to the homeless in DC. Mr. Hadro chose Super Bowl Sunday for this mission trip because he saw it as the day of greatest extravagance in America. The students’ acts of charity on these trips is worth cheering, and I congratulate all of you who went to visit the homeless this year and all the others of you who made it in past years. God in His Good Providence will reward you, I am sure.
Now here is the first part of Father’s series on Divine Providence.
For the next couple of weeks, I would like to offer you a powerful image of the Providence of God and then, for the following three weeks, a personal reflection about it. Such a powerful image is to be found in a children’s story: ‘At the back of the North Wind’ by George MacDonald, a very talented Christian author who deeply inspired the great C.S. Lewis himself. In his book, MacDonald describes the friendship between a boy named Diamond and the North Wind. In one of their dialogues, the North Wind explains to Diamond how is it possible for her to cause a storm that will result in the sinking of a ship and the death of many people. It is in the context of such an explanation, that we find an amazing image for the Providence of God:
“Is the storm over, North Wind?” he called out.
“No, Diamond. I am only waiting a moment to set you down. You would not like to see the ship sunk, and I am going to give you a place to stop in till I come back for you.”
“Oh! Thank you,” said Diamond. “I shall be sorry to leave you, North Wind, but I would rather not see the ship go down. And I’m afraid the poor people will cry, and I should hear them. Oh, dear!”
“There are a good many passengers on board; and to tell the truth, Diamond, I don’t care about your hearing the cry you speak of. I am afraid you would not get it out of your little head again for a long time.”
“But how can you bear it then, North Wind? For I am sure you are kind. I shall never doubt that again.”
“I will tell you how I am able to bear it, Diamond: I am always hearing, through every noise, through all the noise I am making myself even, the sound of a far-off song. I do not exactly know where it is, or what it means; and I don’t hear much of it, only the odour of its music, as it were, flitting across the great billows of the ocean outside this air in which I make such a storm; but what I do hear is quite enough to make me able to bear the cry from the drowning ship. So it would you if you could hear it.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” returned Diamond, stoutly. “For they wouldn’t hear the music of the far-away song; and if they did, it wouldn’t do them any good. You see you and I are not going to be drowned, and so we might enjoy it.”
The story will be continued next post.
Jezu, ufam Tobie.