The following of Christ is not a commitment without its difficulties, challenges and trials. Adversity is a fundamental element in all of life’s situations and more so when, by a free and voluntary choice, one takes on a vocation as a gift and blessing of God. To live the creative presence of God interiorly, as the foundation of our life and mission, is what can guard the spirit and sustain the commitment that the Life of the Kingdom demands in order to be at peace.
To confront this interior peace, which comes from God, with our human personal interests helps us to find the true sense of our life in what we do. To live by faith is to place God at the centre as the author of what we are, do and plan. The encounter of humanity with the divinity is something that questions, creates and transforms us.
The process of transfiguration, of transformation, is the work of God who creates us and leads us to ‘clothe ourselves in Christ Jesus, the New Man’ (cf. Rom. 13:14, Col 3:10). This is not something easy or without problems; there are many trials. In this process some saints have experienced being abandoned by God or what spiritual writers call aridity or dryness. We know that this is a peculiar element of divine pedagogy so that we get it clear that we are creatures and not creators. These trials, welcomed in faith, bring us to the satisfying experience that ‘in everything God works for the good of those who love him’ (Rom. 8:28). Having this aspect of faith, it is normal that even adversity can be lived ‘keeping one’s spirit at peace’.
In difficult moments, do I place my life and work into the hands of God? Have I experienced some adverse situations that have unsettled my faith or my peace?