written by Teresa Donati
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed
Psalm 139
Perhaps it is God’s ultimate mercy that we do not know the days God has formed for us.
Just as ‘no one knows the day and the hour’ of the workings of the Divine Plan (Matt 24:36), who would have guessed we would be living in these fearful days of plague, as well as terrorism, across the earth?
Perhaps it is our ultimate test, to wake each day in faith, to continue to place our trust in the Ultimate Love.
How incredible for the Psalmist to have realized so perfectly the unpredictability of life. A generation of complacency that existed on September 10, 2001, was transformed to a new world on September 12, 2001. A single day, a startling terrorist attack, changed the world. “9/11” is the way it is referred to. A new world consciousness is contained in those numbers.
When 2020 began in the United States, so many plans had been made, schools about to open, parties planned, travel to distant parts of the world anticipated. Who could have imagined it all would be undone or transformed, in less than three months?
The world closed down for so many, jobs were lost, fear prevailed, the daily freedoms we took for granted, became perilous. How do our hearts meet these challenges, how do we keep from despair or anger?
The words of Our Lord are the answers our hearts require. The first answer is to continue in love: of God and of each other. Jesus’ words call us to be stubborn in faith, obstinate in belief, determined in our tenacious embrace of the Cross. Thus our Baptism, wherein we were sealed as Christ’s own forever.
Teresa Donati is a sociologist, essayist, and Christian fiction author.