Once I heard a story about two brothers, who were able to understand each other perfectly. One was a priest, and the other had a disability that, among other things, prevented him from speaking. However, the priest, after so many years of living with him, could understand him perfectly, and his disabled brother also understood him with just a facial gesture.
At a conference, this priest shared that when his brother was born, his family strongly rejected him. His family, practicing Catholics, became angry with God and drifted away from the Church because they couldn’t understand how God could have done this to them: “If we are a good family”; “If we strive to do things according to God’s law”; “If we are not like so many families who are Christians in name only”; “If we…, if we…, etc.” and then “Why do You do this to us, God?”; “Why do You treat us like this, God?”; “Why are You punishing us, God?” These were the questions his parents were asking.
All of this turned them from a “happy” and “joyful” family into a “sad” and “unhappy” one. However, the priest recounted that one day his parents received a grace: they realized they shouldn’t be asking “why,” but rather they should ask “for what purpose”: “For what purpose did God send me this son?” That changed their lives, because they were finally able to find meaning in that reality which, until then, had been unbearable to them. It became a cross that contained many graces—graces they began to discover thanks to asking “for what purpose” instead of “why.” Not only did joy return to that home, but it returned abundantly.
This is one of the keys to remaining faithful during trials. If we believe that, as Saint Paul says, all things work for the good of those who love God (Romans 8:28), then those things that happen in our lives that we don’t like, don’t understand, or find repulsive, become a good if we see them in the correct way; if instead of complaining and asking “Why me?” we try to understand God’s Will behind it and the good that God wants to give us through this unpleasant event in our lives.
Questions like “For what purpose does God send me this cross?” or “What is the grace that God wants to grant me through this cross or difficult situation I am experiencing?” are essential for being faithful and obtaining all the graces that God wants to pour out upon our souls through the crosses of daily life.
