God knows us better than we know ourselves


God knows us better than we know ourselves

Cl. Mario D’Couto sdb

            The original title of this article was ‘Priesthood’ and it was written by a certain Bishop named Tom Burns. This article is one of the many articles found in the book called ‘Priesthood- A life open to Christ’ written by Fr. Daniel P. Cronin. I was taken up by this article when I read it the first time and hence this is something that I would like to share with you.
            In the beginning of this article, Bishop Burns shares of his experience where one day he found on the rear window the following note, ‘Be patient with me. God hasn’t finished making me yet’. This idea was actually taken from one of the earliest Fathers of the Church, Tertullian, who said, ‘Christians are made; they are not born’.
            Applying this in the context of priestly and religious life, he says that just because we undergo a long period of priestly training (approximately 7-13 years), that does not in anyway guarantee that we will be fully formed. For as long as we are human, we will always be learning and making mistakes. God, therefore, makes us and is continuously making us and hence this would be contradictory to the traditionalistic catechism teaching that it is ‘God who made us’ (that is, as a one time affair).
            God’s work is not yet finished; His grace introduces us to new experiences of Himself and each and every day. We grow into His ways and His life in every moment that we turn  to Him and find  that He is already turned to us, waiting, smiling, or even probably laughing at our plans! Thus, it is always important to remember, “When thing’s don’t go our way, remember that God is up to something”. The sad part is that somewhere deep down inside us we know that if we let God into what is going on in us, we will have to change and if we find it so difficult to change ourselves, imagine how difficult it is to change others?
            We, therefore, need to be patient, first with ourselves, and then with others as Bishop Tom Burns puts it, ‘The hardest ministry of all is to let God do in us what we dare not even think of. But it will make all the difference- to us and to others”.

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