The crosses we endure provide us with THE opportunity to become one with God, the Trinity. By absorbing pain of any kind, we cooperate with a mysterious plan in the purgative stage. We cannot live the life of the virtues without absorbing these pains. The illuminative stage, which follows that of purgation, allows the soul to see and experience that all is in God, whether good or evil, loss or gain. Such purgation cleans the heart and mind so that one can love those who hate them, criticize them, spurn them, judge them. Illumination reveals that the love of God is in all things and all people. One can love the enemy.
My mother lost three children. Is this God's Will? I had cancer. Is this God's Will? Some people have horrible experiences, such as abuse as children. Is this God's Will?
He has seen from all time the evil which men and women do to each other. After the Fall, the choice of Adam and Eve to rebel against God's plan for them, the Trinity allowed all of us our free wills, to do good or evil.
We have all done both.
That God allows such freedom is a scandal to some, but Love can only happen in freedom. Love is an act of the free will and heart, not a coercion.
That God freely loves me and that I live and move and have my being in that Love is FREE GIFT.
Does it matter how I came to accept this free gift of love?
What matters is that the illumination of God's love puts all failure and pain into perspective. As I sit in a student flat wondering what will be my next step in God's plan, I move with and in God. How I got here and where I am going next does not matter. That failures happen does not matter if one sees that God has allowed certain events to break down the self-will and rebellion left from the First Parents' defection from God.
May I add that we are not alone in this journey. We each, those of us who are baptized, have an angel guardian to help us on the way. Pray to your angel. There are other angels who God may send to help one, just as God sent Raphael to help Tobit.
