God who is Faithful

Feast of Presentation of the Lord

February 2, 2014

Luke 2:22-40

“…or my eyes have seen your salvation…(Luk 2:30)”

 

God is faithful and shall fulfill His promises. In the today’s Gospel, Simeon and Anna saw with their own eyes how God brought about His words in their lives. “He should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord”, and the baby Messiah was revealed to Simeon and Anna. In fact, the Scripture is all about God’s fidelity to His beloved people. Yet, we should take note that God’s ways to realize His promises are not ours to expect. The most unlikely means God uses, in fact, unveils His might all the more. Simeon and Anna were practically dying when the Holy Infant was presented to them. Abraham was grey-haired and Sara was barren when God gave Isaac. Israel was a tiny and bullied nation when God delivered her from the strong Egyptians. Finally, God liberates the entire creations from the sin and death through Jesus who was executed on the cross.

One of the reasons why I persevere in this vocation is because God is faithful to His promises. When I recall back my stories, I just marvel on how God’s fidelity and providence. I had no solid plan to become a priest until suddenly my close friend invited me to take an entrance exam for minor seminary. Four years after I entered, my original blueprint was going back to my own diocese, but it was once again altered when unexpectedly, Fr. Adrian Adiredjo OP, came and conducted vocation promotion on Dominican Order. Another surprising twist! And currently in my theological study, I determined to focus on my intellectual formation, but it was once again changed when in the most bizarre circumstances, I was elected to become a coordinator of a youth group. My life is so thrilling and full of surprises. It is also challenging and difficult, knowing that all my plans eventually come to ruin. Yet, one thing that I am sure of, that every time I said yes to His invitation, God is ever-faithful to His promise: He will be with me through thick and thin of life.

Therefore, when people ask me why I am still in my vocation, the answer is simple: it is not because I am faithful, but because God is faithful to me. If spouses can be loyal to their partner for better and for worse, it is not because they are good, but because God is good to them. The foundation of human relationship and basis of any human community is the word “I do”, not of any human being, but of God to His people. Perhaps this is why late Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that marriage is not difficult, but it is just humanly impossible!

This is actually the same cause why at times we fail, not because God is not faithful, but because we do not entrust ourselves His loving providence and we fall short to remember the way God has fulfilled His words in the past. Remember the words of God in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

I am aware that my future is no longer mine to decide, but one thing I am certain, that God is always with me. As St. Paul would assure all of us, “I am confident of this, that the One who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6).”

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP