WHAT DO THESE PHOTOS TELL YOU?
Dear brethren in Christ, I decided to write this post after coming across a picture in my newsfeed of Filipinos attending the Holy Mass inside a flooded church. Looking closely at the picture, I just can’t help but feel immensely edified by the firm faith of those people inside the flooded Church, waiting for the Holy Mass to begin.
I searched further for more pictures on the web depicting for themselves their example of faith in God and I stumbled upon two aftermath photos of Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon ever recorded in modern history which battered the Philippine nation in 2013: one showing a crying woman praying the Holy Rosary inside a ruined and flooded Church; and, another photo showing a group of Filipino women clinging to their sacred images they have salvaged from the typhoon, with their heads held up high, in spite of being broken-hearted after such a devastating loss of lives and property.
What do all these photos tell me?
THE FIRM AND UNSHAKEABLE FAITH AND PROFOUND LOVE FOR GOD IN THE MIDST OF TRIALS THESE PEOPLE HAVE.
They may have felt downtrodden and beaten by natural calamities or other real burdens but faith in God gave the right perspective in their life and will always provide them with the optimism, serenity, inner strength and firm conviction that God never abandons His children!
As St. Paul wrote:
“If God is for us, who is against us?… Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 31.35. 38-39).”
To my countrymen, you have given me an edifying example from which all Catholics in the world should learn.
You have shown by your example that
nothing will separate you from trusting and loving God.
Not even typhoons, nor earthquakes, nor floods have succeeded in putting out the fire of your resilient faith and steadfast love for God!
May we all learn from your shining example especially when we experience terrible moments of suffering, pain, sickness, calamities…converting them into occasions to seek, trust, love and co-redeem with God and abandon ourselves into His Hands. My sincere gratitude to all of you who have shown us how it is to accept God’s Will trustingly and lovingly. I pray that we persevere till the end.
Cordially inviting you to visit and like our FB page in www.fb.com/CatholicsstrivingforHoliness or sign-up to our website,www.catholicsstrivingforholiness.com, so we can have a wider apostolic reach and thus help more people in their Christian life. Thanks! Fr. Rolly A., priest of Opus Dei.
PHOTO SOURCES: (CLOCKWISE)
http://time.com/3554112/tacloban-yolanda-supertyphoon-typhoon-haiyan-anniversary/
https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/7f5aa-facebook-20151223-220747.png