Sustaining Providence With Promises

Though I have previously written about “divine providence” in the Catholic spiritual life before, the meaning of the term is worth revisiting. The Dominican theologian, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, in his scholarly work on providenc,e defines and elaborates upon it thusly: “Divine Providence is God’s intervention in the world, particularly in the lives of His human creation.” While God certainly remains active in the lives of those who seek relationship with Him, bestowing upon them incredible, sometimes even supernatural moments which we may only be able to ascribe to “divine providence” itself, we mustn’t doubt God’s continuous upholding of the providential graces He bestows upon us once the mere “high” or feelings of the incredible or supernatural intervention passes. It is up to us to “sustain” and “maintain” the providence God bestows upon us by first and foremost asking for the grace to remain active in our relationship with Him by means of prayer, frequent reception of the sacraments, and good works, the latter of which necessarily includes others, particularly our significant other, an obvious and evident source by which God often does intervene lovingly in our lives.

When I was young in elementary school, I struggled greatly with comprehending the subject of math (some things never change). When, in the most burdensome moments of my struggles, I would often beg God to help me “get it,” my mother would often remind me with an encouraging, but firm phrase: “God helps those who help themselves.” Today, as I more richly notice and experience moments of “divine providence” in my own life, and even theologically investigate these moments of divine intervention, this phrase takes on new meaning. As I mentioned above, God certainly intervenes in our lives with moments of providential care and grace, but we must “help ourselves” also in order to sustain and maintain the effects of such moments of divine intervention. Take my math struggles as an example: God wasn’t going to miraculously “zap” me with the answers to earn an A on a math test if I didn’t practice, study, or get the help of a tutor because then instead of my passing having been the result of divine providence, we might say it was the result of “divine conspiracy” in the sense that God would have helped me cheat and therefore earn what I didn’t deserve. Now, it is true that God frequently blesses us with more than we deserve, however, this is out of the overflowing abundance of His goodness and care for us. God can never do anything that contradicts His own nature, and so miraculously “zapping” me with all the right answers on a math test without my having even attempted to “sustain” or “maintain” my limited comprehension of the subject would have been evidence of God contradicting His own justice. Returning now to the importance of our role in sustaining and maintaining the effects of God’s providence, we can think of these providential moments as God’s sort of “getting us started” in a certain direction, task, path, or endeavor. While God will never abandon or forsake us, we have a responsibility, hence our existence with free-will, to carry on the good work God helps us to begin by means of His divine providence.

Catholic-Christian theology teaches that there are two successful components to any effective or meaningful prayer: the prayer itself (confidence in God’s help) and the action which follows the prayer (the human effort). God rewards such effort. The Benedictines best understand the two-fold dynamics of this facet of the spiritual life. Our founder, St. Benedict of Nursia, had a most popular maxim by which he lived and further instructed his followers to live. This maxim was “ora et labora” in Latin, which means “prayer and work.” In this happy synthesis of both reliance on God’s help and our own human efforts, we see a merger of both the active and contemplative life; the best of both Martha and Mary (see Luke 10:38-42). So, while we reach out to God in prayer, we show God our confidence and trust in Him by beginning the actions necessary to bring about the result of our prayer intention, believing that He will help us along the way. This entire interaction, that is, prayer and work, begins with hope (the prayer), is strengthened by faith (trusting that God will positively answer that prayer), and ends with love (always an action of choice rather than constantly of feeling). When we speak of the prayer-work relationship ending in love, we see a mutuality emerge: We are “loving into existence” the outcome of our prayer by entrusting it to Love Himself who in turn, pours out His love on us in the answer of our prayer / the fulfillment of our work.

In very practical terms, we can illustrate the sustenance and maintenance of divine providence in our lives in view of relationship – to God, foremost, and to our significant other, remembering the wise counsel of the Protestant theologian and renowned Fuller Theological Seminary professor, Lewis Smedes, who in one of his most oft-quoted and stirring sermons entitled, The Power of Promises, said, “We are most like God when we forgive and when we keep a promise.” All relationships are based on promises. To be sure, God’s relationship with all of humanity began with a single promise. God said to Abraham, “I am the One who will be there for you… always.” Throughout centuries, then, this similar promise has resounded through various figures of history including Moses, Isaiah, Job, Jeremiah, Jesus, John, Peter, Paul, and even those of us today, His modern-day Apostles. Smedes continues in his sermon, saying:

“When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into
circumstances that no one can control, and no matter what, controls
at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances
turn out to be.”

In his book, Integrity, Yale University School of Law professor, Dr. Stephen L. Carter, expounds upon Smedes statements on the importance of promises in relationship, writing:

“A promise, in other words, is an open and unequivocal statement
about how one intends to live; once made, it is also a claim,
irretrievable, of the importance of the particular choice that is
promised” (pg. 33).

To bring this importance of promise-making and promise-keeping back home to a most Catholic perspective, Professor Carter even cites St. Augustine in his elaborations on Smedes wise words, noting that “St. Augustine contended that any lie, and any promise not kept was a sin against God’s gift of speech” (ibid).

For a moment, then, even if only briefly, let us return to the first quote mentioned above from Smedes. It reads in part: “We are most like God when we… keep a promise.” This is of vital significance to the sustenance and maintenance of the effects of divine providence in our lives. God’s intervention in our lives (the very nature of providence itself) simultaneously reveals, presupposes, and necessitates the presence of a relationship (between God & beloved child). In similar reflection, because of our having been made “in the image and likeness of God,” when we make, and thus keep a promise to another person, especially a significant other, we reveal to them the presence and importance of the relationship that exists between the promise keeper and the person to whom the promise has been made. It is important to note that promises can be (and are) made even if one doesn’t explicitly state the phrase, “I promise.” Jesus reveals this best in many of his claims which later turn out not ever to have been merely claims, but are, instead, statements of promise followed up by action (again, the importance of both prayer and work; the active and the contemplative). Among a plethora of examples (cf: any of Jesus’ healings, exorcisms, or miracles), the best example of Jesus’ promise-making and promise-keeping comes in His very own Resurrection.

“From that time on, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to
Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.” (Matt. 16:21).
{Promise Made}.

“Then the angel said to the woman, “Why do you seek the living among
the dead? He is not here, but has been raised. Have you forgotten what
He told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to
sinners, and crucified, but that He would rise on the third day?”
(Luke 24: 5-7).
{Promise Kept}.

It is true that while human beings are not divine as Jesus is, we share in His nature simply by our having been created “in His image.” Therefore, then, it is not impossible for us to successfully make and keep promises to both God and one another, once again and for our focus, particularly, towards our significant other. God, in the unfathomable depths of His providence, even provides to us means of sustaining and maintaining the effects of His initial instances of divine providence within our lives, and I would assert that these means are through these very promises that we make to God in our own relationships with Him but also in relationship to our significant other who is also created “in His image” and who thus “bears the image of the invisible God” to us.

In our efforts to successfully carry out the goodness God begins in us, often through means of His divine providence, through the sustenance and maintenance of the effects of such instances of divine providence, I am once more reminded of St. Benedict, but also St. Francis, St. Bernard and other monastics. St. Benedict began a tradition which these other great monastic leaders also carried on when he instructed his followers, monks, and priests to adopt the habit of wearing a three-knot cord around their waists to remind them of their duties to remember and adhere to their promises of prayer, work, and study. Today, we might also adopt a similar tripartite set of promises to God and our significant other, the means through which we can continuously cultivate our relationships and carry on the goodness that begins in the initial experiences of divine providence. In all successful relationships, whether human or divine, three key components (and we would do well to take these up as our promises) exist:

Faithfulness: both to God and significant other (in whom God dwells in love) exists more than merely in terms of sexual fidelity, but also in terms of emotional faithfulness. An argument, however unfortunate and misplaced, is often made among younger persons today that the sin of adultery does not apply for acts of infidelity outside the bonds of Holy Marriage. This, however, does not hold the weight of Truth. Whenever two persons engaged in relationship commit to one another, there is an emotional depth formed which leaves both parties vulnerable. That vulnerability is inextricably tied in with human emotionality and linked to the soul. Therefore, acts of infidelity can and do still harm persons in mere committed relationships and who are not yet married. When we are faithful to one another, we express the faithfulness by which God makes and keeps His promises to each one of us and by which He exists in relationship to us. In like manner, we are called to be faithful to God and our significant other thereby continuing the relationships in which divine providence is ever encountered in the first place. Even Jesus in the Scriptures reminds us: “Whoever is faithful in small matters, will be faithful in large ones.”

Communication: was spoken of beautifully by St. Francis de Sales in his popular work of spiritual direction entitled, Introduction to the Devout Life. In it, he writes, “In relationship, there must exist frequent exchange and communication for such is the foundation thereof.” While it can be said that faithfulness acknowledges the presence of a relationship, it is communication that nurtures it. The faithful cannot maintain a relationship with God, much less sustain the effects of divine providence if they do not communicate frequently with God in prayer and reception of the Sacraments. Likewise, two persons in love cannot grow or nurture their love without communicating with one another in a mutually appreciative exchange of thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Furthermore, for divine providence ever to have been experienced by human persons at all, it must have been communicated via the medium of a relationship. From Jesus, we know that He didn’t always communicate with His followers in voice, but many times in what St. John simply calls “signs and wonders.” We, too, need not vocally communicate constantly, but can also by showing signs of our love and affection through simple gestures of care, concern, compassion, hope, and generosity.

Perseverance: seals the effects of divine providence within earthly and even on into eternal life. When we encounter moments of God’s divine providence, at first we feel the “spiritual high” of having encountered it, but over time, as life wears on, it can be easy to lose sight of the gift we have been given in the encounter with divine providence, thus perseverance is necessary to sustain the effects received through the initial moment of encounter with divine providence. This, of course, cannot occur apart from relationship… and you guessed it, both with God, the source of divine providence, and a significant other, with whom in our relationship, we communicate and live-out the divine interplay of relationship between God and the entire human family. St. John Paul II once remarked in a homily, “I plead with you: never give up… never doubt, never tire, and never become disheartened.” This quote from the great Pontiff speaks precisely of what is required of us in perseverance. Perseverance, apart from being a promise by which we sustain the effects of divine providence, is, in itself, an essential quality of both prayer and promise. There may come times when we don’t “feel” like praying or when we don’t “feel” like loving, being faithful, communicating, or even persevering, but we must continue on for only by doing so do we most closely imitate the Savior who never gives up on us, His beloved.

In closing, it is worth mentioning that there can be no divine providence nor any sort of foundation for promise if there is not love. The very occurrence of instances of divine providence is evidence of the presence of love and as God is love, also the presence of God Himself. Furthermore, promises flow forth from relationship in which love draws together, holds together, and finds blessed perfection. St. Augustine long ago wrote of the means of sustaining the effects of divine providence when he also explained the role of the Holy Trinity in loving relationship. He said, “Wherever there is love, there is a trinity: the lover, the beloved, and the overflowing fountain of love between them.” By our encounters with divine providence, we (the beloved) encounter the ultimate lover (God) and having encountered Him in loving relationship first, our love spills over like that inexhaustible fountain in the very promises we make and keep to God Himself and to our significant other, who also reflects God’s very countenance.