When God seems far away, Mary: Day 234

When God seems far away

Mary suffered great sorrow when she couldn’t find the boy Jesus for three days. St. Alphonsus says we can learn from the way she suffered in those days how we ourselves can suffer yet have peace.

The sorrow of Mary at losing the boy Jesus for a while should serve as a consolation to those souls who are desolate because they no longer enjoy, as they once enjoyed, the sweet presence of their Lord. They may weep, but they should weep in peace, as Mary wept over the absence of her Son. And let them take courage, not fearing that on this account they have lost God’s favor. For God himself assured St. Teresa that “no one is lost without knowing it, and no one is deceived without wishing to be deceived.”

If our Lord withdraws himself from the sight of a soul that loves him, that doesn’t mean he has departed from the heart. He often conceals himself from a soul, so that the soul may seek him with a more ardent desire and greater love. But whoever wishes to find Jesus must seek him, not amid the delights and plea- sures of the world, but amid crosses and mortifications, as Mary sought him. As Mary said to her Son, “we sought you sorrowing” (Lk 2:48). “Learn, then, from Mary,” says the ancient spiritual writer Origen, “to seek Jesus.”

In addition, we should imitate Mary in that she would seek no other good in this world than Jesus. Job was not unhappy when he lost all that he possessed on earth—riches, children, health, and honors—and even descended from a throne to a dunghill. But because he had God with him, he was happy even then.

St. Augustine says, “Job had lost what God had given him, but he still had God him- self.” On the other hand, truly miserable and unhappy are those souls who have lost God. If Mary wept over the absence of her Son for three days, how much more should sinners weep, who have lost divine grace? For this is the effect of sin: It separates the soul from God. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Am I convinced that even when I suffer great loss, though I have lost what God has given me, I still have God himself ? When I lose even the sense of God’s nearness, am I able to seek him, trusting that he is close by me even then?

CLOSING PRAYER
“O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy. . . . In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. . . . Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help” (Ps 22:2–4, 11).

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