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Three things the God of Consolation Wants You to Discover
Let us imagine the Blessed Virgin Mary saying to us the words found in the book of Baruch chapter 4: 21-30: “21 Come, take courage, my children, I have cried out to God.
He will deliver you from the violence of the enemy. 22
Because I hoped for your salvation from the Eternal One, joy has come to me from the Holy One, because of the mercy that will come to you soon from the Eternal One, our Savior. 23 In tears and mourning, I saw you leave, but in joy and gladness God will bring you back to me forever. 24 As the
neighbors of Zion have seen your captivity so they will soon see your salvation from God, when he manifests to you the great glory and the
splendor of the Eternal God. 25 Children, bear patiently this punishment
(this trial), which came on you from God. The enemy has persecuted you,
but you will soon see his downfall and you will trample him underfoot. 26
My well-beloved children have walked by difficult paths, carried off like a herd stolen by enemies. 27 Take courage, my children, cry out to God, for
he who sent you into exile will remember you. 28 Thus, as you distanced yourself from God, return to him and seek him ten times more earnestly. 29
For he who caused these evils to fall on you will bring you salvation and eternal joy. 30 Take courage, Jerusalem. He who has named you will
console you.” In this reading, we see three very important things that God wants us to discover in our lives.
The first is that God will deliver you from the violence of the enemies of your soul. The
second is that we must bear patiently the trials that God permits in our lives. And the
third is that the one who has given you your name will console you.
Why Some People Get Sad Without Knowing Why
Sometimes there are people who feel a great sadness come over them all of a sudden without knowing why they are sad. This sadness is one that makes a
person feel depressed and down in such a way, that this person doesn’t have the
strength to even think one happy thought, let alone reflect in the great mercy of
God. This person, in his or her tears, says with Psalm 13 “3 How long must I
suffer pain in my soul and grief in my heart all the day long? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?” This sadness that comes over someone might be
a sign that the enemy is present and bothering that person. God is eternal
happiness, and the devil, being the total opposite of God, is eternal sadness. Wherever the devil is, so there is his sadness. Whenever he comes near someone, that person feels his sadness, just like whenever the God of Consolation comes to you, you feel a peace, a joy and a love that cannot be expressed with words.
Where Most of Our Difficulties Come From
Besides spreading his depressive virus of sadness, the enemy also likes to present us with obstacles, so that we cannot accomplish what we have set out to
do. He also presents new difficulties that come out of nowhere, and likes to
exaggerate current difficulties, so that we may see the difficulty much greater than
what it actually is. This he does while he formulates barriers to make us feel stuck
in our path and makes us think that to live a Christian life as Jesus wants us to and
invites us to live it is impossible. We see a good example in the book of Ezra,
chapter 4, verses 1 and 4: “1 The enemies of Judah and Benjamin learned that those who had returned from exile were building the sanctuary of Yahweh,
the God of Israel…” “4 They, the people of the land, then set about discouraging the workers of Judah and frightening them to keep them from
building.” Not only does the violent enemy present barriers, as we see here, but
he tries to discourage us from working in the things of God and the things in our
state of life. Many of us have experienced this discouragement, in which we begin
well, and then we lose that encouragement and motivation we once had. This is
the work of the enemy.
God Will Deliver You From the Enemies of Your Soul
The enemy makes himself busy by presenting you with all kinds of obstacles and temptations, trying you in any way he could find possible, but nonetheless, he
is not all-powerful, but a simple creature, just like you and me. God, who is our
Creator, is All-Powerful. The enemy, in comparison with God, is all-weak. Though the enemy is more powerful than you and me because he is an angel (an
evil one of course) and pure spirit, he is at the same time less powerful than us,
because God is in us. Without God, we would crumble to pieces before the
violence of the enemy. With God, we have victory over the devil, because victory belongs to God, and we belong to God. That is why we can quote the words
found in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 20, saying, “11 But Yahweh, a mighty
warrior, is with me. My persecutors will stumble and not prevail; that failure will be their shame and their disgrace will never be forgotten.” Our
number one persecutor, the devil, will stumble and not prevail, because a Mighty
Warrior, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, is with us.
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