God's Providence

CCC 302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides all his creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end. One passage of Scripture captures the reality of Providence: Romans 8:28 All things work for good for those who love God.  CCC 303 The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the care of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history. The Scriptures powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events…CCC 304 And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a "primitive mode of speech", but a profound way of recalling God's primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the world, and so of educating his people to trust in him. St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter with these words: "Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best." CCC 305 Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children's smallest needs: 'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. For life means more than food, and the body more than clothing. Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. And how much more are you worth than the birds! Can any of you, for all his worrying, add a single cubit to his span of life? If the smallest things, therefore, are outside your control, why worry about the rest?... But you, you must not set your hearts on things to eat and things to drink; nor must you worry. It is the pagans of this world who set their hearts on all these things. Your Father well knows you need them. No; set your hearts on his kingdom, and these other things will be given you as well.  Providence comes from the word pro-videre which means “to see”. In His providence God sees all things before you; in place of you and in your favor. What do we mean by this? God sees all the things you will experience long before you, in fact from all eternity. Nothing is a surprise to him, nothing catches him off-guard. Second, even if you do not understand what you are going through, God does. God sees it, he understands it for you, He can make sense out of it for you – trust him. Finally, God will see all things in your favor – He’s got your back.  God providentially guides all things to good through His Wisdom, that is, through the Holy Spirit. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Wisdom chapter 8:1 states “She (the Holy Spirit) reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well.” Mary, as the human expression of the Spirit, participates in this providential care of the Holy Spirit as the Spiritual Mother of all people. Mary watches over every aspect of the Christian life and home as she did for Jesus and Joseph in Nazareth. Therefore, Christians have called Mary, Our Lady of Providence. I have attached an image of Gaetano's Madonna gazing lovingly upon her two-year-old Son. This image of Mary as "Queen of the Home" has been enshrined over the fireplace of countless homes throughout the world.   Maybe someone will place it over their mantle.