Acquiescence and Trust

One of the deadliest of all poison mushrooms is the Amanita phalloides. For slugs and snails, however, it’s a nourishing and favorite food. If that divergence of sustenance applied to humans, we’d simply say, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” or, “different strokes for different folks.”

Just as the divine ingenuity has immunized some animal species and not others when it comes to poisons, so also, within the human variegations, the Lord accommodates his providence to the needs of each individual and each one’s calling. Some are called to be saints by their lifelong physical, mental, or emotional handicaps in a sickbed or mental institution. Others are called to become saints by a vigorous life of endurance spent in evangelizing others as missionaries, teachers, or in serving God’s people as social workers, medical personnel, and so on.

The “different strokes for different folks” principle is all part of God’s marvelous smorgasbord of providence. Whether a person is called to be a cloistered monk or a disease-ravaged missionary in the tropics, struggling to learn a strange foreign language, each is accommodating God’s will and is exercising a very sanctifying acquiescence to that divine will. Implied in the sincere pursuit of these persons’ callings is the trust they manifest in knowing that God is being glorified by their lives, and that his reward most certainly awaits them.

With somewhat less than theological acumen, Archie Bunker, of All in the Family fame, in one program was, as usual, arguing with his agnostic son-in-law (whom he affectionately called “Meathead”). Archie proclaimed with pompous certainty, “God don’t make no mistakes; that’s how he got to be God!”

When God doesn’t explain his actions (or non-actions!), agnosticism becomes tempting as a philosophy. We tend to humanize him as one who must be making some mistake in handling this or that situation, especially when it comes to sickness, adversity, or tribulation. We may feel that we could arrange things better than God does. Yet the faith-activated trust for which we strive is the mysterious filter through which we are able to see the invisible, appreciate the ineffable, and marvel at the inscrutable in the plan of God, even when we don’t understand it.

This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.