God Writes Straight with Crooked Lines

CEBU, Philippines - Christians, Roman Catholics and non-Roman Catholics alike, believe that God so loved the world that He became man, whose name is Jesus (meaning “Savior”) Christ (meaning “Anointed”). There were many crooked lives in the ancestral line of the God-made-man as narrated in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible.

The first man (Adam) broke God’s command not to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree in the middle of the Garden of Paradise. It was the first woman (Eve) who the devil first tempted and who offered the forbidden fruit to Adam. That is why some writers describe the first woman as “Woe to man!” Or, as Shakespeare writes in his play, Hamlet, “Frailty, woman is thy name!”

Woe to Samson because of Delilah! Woe to David because of Bathseba! On the other hand, if it were not for the consent of the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of God’s Son, mankind would not have been saved from its sin. This is the reason why St. Ambrose called Adam’s sin “felix culpa” or “happy fault”. Augustine’s metamorphosis from a pagan to a saint was due to his mother Monica who prayed for him for 30 years! If it is true that to every man’s downfall, there is a woman behind, it is equally true that to every man’s success there is a woman behind.

When Pope St. Pius X was consecrated Pope, he showed his papal ring to his mother saying “Look, Ma, the Pope’s ring is beautiful, isn’t it?” She in turn showed him her wedding ring and said, “Guiseppe, if it were not for my wedding ring, you would not have received that beautiful papal ring!” This is the reason why the Catholic Church has a very great veneration (not adoration) for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.

My former spiritual director, the Very Rev. Fr. Heinz Kuluke, SVD, who is now in Rome being the Superior General of their Religious Congregation has said, “If I will be elected Pope, the first person that I will canonize will be my mother!” In Madrid, Spain there is a miniature replica of the Rizal statue at the Luneta. On the pedestal are the words: “La madre cria el porvenir del pais” or “The mother creates the future of the country”.

God knows how much sacrifice a mother goes through in order to bear a human being in her womb for nine months and to take care of the child once the umbilical cord is cut! This is the reason why God cannot turn a deaf ear to a mother’s prayers for her wayward children.

Would God not also listen to mothers who pray for their children who have fallen to illegal drugs addiction? God, with Whom nothing is possible can write straight with crooked lines!