Divine Providence
by Rev. Roderick MacEachen
God watches over all His creatures. He governs all beings by laws suited to their nature. He directs them to their respective destinies. God rules over His creatures with infinite wisdom. His Divine Providence extends from the smallest life cell to the highest angel, from the tiniest atom to the universe itself.
Nothing is too lowly for His loving care. If He deigns to create the creeping worm and the tiny insect, sure He will watch over their existence.
The bounty of God has been lavished upon all creation. God has provided for the needs and comforts of all His living creatures. He has covered the lower animals with natural raiment suited to the different climates in which they live.
God has provided abundance of varied sustenance for man. He has given him materials from which to clothe himself. He has provided beasts of burden and domestic animals for his benefit. He has given him the power of water, steam, electricity and gas for his machines. He has provided him with fuel of various kinds. He has supplied him with abundant materials for his buildings. He has stored in the bowels of the earth treasures and minerals which man may dig at will.
God made the sun to shed its light upon the earth and to pour out its heat for the benefit of all living creatures. He sends down the dew and the rain to moisten the growing crops. "The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord; and thou givest meat in due season. Thou openest thy hand and fillest with blessing every living creature."
God leads us through life. He provides for us as a most devoted father. Well might it be said to each one of us: "The Lord they God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to carry his little son, all the way that you have come, until you came to this place." God carries us, as it were, in His arms, through life into eternity.
God indeed provides ample for our earthly wants. Yet His special care is directed toward our eternal welfare. If God seems to abandon us, at times, it is to make us love Him the more. If God permits great sorrows to embitter our earthly life, it is to make us set our hearts more fervently on eternity.
God can not abandon us. He can not cease to love us. Man can abandon God and cease to love Him. But God's love is eternal. God is not fickle in His love. It is here that the Providence of God is most tender. God will not abandon even the wicked to his sins. He provides for the sinner as well as for the saint. He is our "Father in Heaven, who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust."
God shows special love even for sinners. He gives them the grace of repentance. He fills their hearts with remorse. He gives weak mortals the power to forgive them in the Sacrament of Penance.
The sinner rebels against God. Yet God longs to take him back to His bosom. "Oh, how good and sweet is They spirit, O Lord, in all things! And therefore Thou chasiseth them that err, by little and little; and admonishest them, and speakest to them, concerning the things wherein they offend: that leaving their wickedness they may believe in Thee, O Lord."
God knows what is good for us better far than we ourselves know. If He does not grant our prayers, at times, it is not because He loves us less. A good mother must often refuse the wishes of her child. This is but a proof of her love and solicitude for her little one.
He who pus his trust in Divine Providence knows the meaning of the world about him. To him it reflects the love and bounty of God. No trial or sorrow can drive peace from his heart. No misfortune can make him despair. For he knows that a loving God is watching over him. Well may he say with holy David: "I am a beggar and poor; the Lord is careful for me."
God loves us and provides for us in a wondrous manner. Yet we are bound to use all our powers and faculties to work out our last end and destiny. God helps those that help themselves. God makes the crops grow in the fields. Yet man must sow, and cultivate and reap them. God provides remedies for our bodily ills. Yet certain men must become physicians to administer them to us. God wants us to be industrious and energetic. Yet He does not want us to worry. He wants us to labor as if all depended upon us and to trust in Him as if all depended on Him.