Sadness makes the devil happy

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

 

THIS should be made clear to all of us. We are meant to be happy, not only from time to time, but all time. Impossible? Of course, it will be impossible if we rely mainly if not solely on our own powers. But that’s not supposed to be. We are meant to be with God and to rely mainly on his powers. That way, we can always manage to be at peace and happy, which is what is ideal for all of us.

Sadness is the ally of our enemy. It makes the devil happy. It’s when we are sad, beset with worries and fears, when we become most vulnerable to our own personal weaknesses and to the wiles of the devil. We have to learn to overcome our sadness by learning how to be tough when the life becomes tough.

And toughness can mean that we just abandon ourselves in the hands of God when we seem to be helpless in a given situation or predicament. We may call it a holy kind of indifference or insensitivity that is necessary for all of us to have.

Yes, we are supposed to be responsible for our life, able to take charge of everything. We should do our best to solve all our problems, But we should not forget that our powers can only go so far.

Others may do more than us, can manage things better than us, can be more successful in handling things than us, but everyone has his limits. We should not belabor the obvious fact that we cannot handle everything, nor solve all our problems, nor resolve all our issues.

Rather, if we live by our Christian faith, we know that we precisely can make use of our difficulties as a strong reason to get closer to God who can do what is impossible for us to do. We would have no problem doing that, since we know that God is our Father who takes care of everything for us. With such attitude, we can manage to have peace, and even joy.

It’s important that no matter how our day would go, we should end it without anything weighing heavily in our mind and heart. This attitude is not some kind of self-deceiving trick we play on ourselves. It has basis on our Christian faith as articulated, for example, by St. Paul when he said, “For when I am weak that I am strong.” (2 Cor 12,10)

Allowing ourselves to keep worries and fears would simply be a manifestation of our lack of faith in God, in his abiding providence. It can also mean that we are so dominated by pride that we cannot realize anymore that we are not expected to solve everything in our life, and that it is only God who can do that, as articulated again by St. Paul who said: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” (Phil 1,6)

Definitely, to be able to live by our Christian faith when we are assailed with problems and difficulties, will require effort and training. And so we should just have our daily practice, since, anyway, each day brings with it its own load of challenges and difficulties. Let’s consider them as opportunities to learn how to be peaceful and happy even in the midst of the negative things in our life.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com