“Opportunities” for Sanctification

Michael and I finally watched “Evan Almighty” a few weeks ago after many of our friends recommended it and I actually thought it was good for families to watch, because of the many good messages it contained.

One of my favorite parts of the movie was when “God” spoke to Evan’s wife about how God may give us what we are asking for, but not necessarily in the way or form in which we specifically asked Him. In other words, when we ask for patience, for instance, God does not throw us a hundred pounds of patience from heaven so then we can magically become patient. Rather, God gives us that patience by providing us with opportunities to learn and then practice and grow in that patience.

I thought the message in this scene was very basic and simple—so “new”, but yet so old. Our God does not operate in the abstract (like the hundred pounds of patience). The simple fact that God became man should be a proof of that. Instead, He entered into our human realities by having become one of us and taught us what it means to live the life we have been given by God to the fullest: to be compassionate, to love, serve, interact with others, listen, teach, understand… It is not through isolation that we become better people—better Christians. In other words, I do not become a more patient person by only sitting and praying in my room. Instead, I become more patient when I am presented with certain situations with others that allow me to learn and practice the patience that I have asked God for. This is not to say that the prayer component is not important. On the contrary, prayer is absolutely essential. Prayer is our constant fuel—the food from which we nurture and live. It is through prayer—in the constant nurturing of our relationship with God—that we learn from Him, in this most intimate way, how it is that we ought to live our lives to give glory to Him. However, we can’t take “the others” out of the picture—of that process of “becoming.” We are not Gnostics, so we don’t understand the “material” world as trapping us from becoming like Christ. The world and, hence, the others do not stand as a barrier in our spiritual life. Instead, they aid us in understanding God and His will.

I have been going through very tough times with my family recently and I have asked God to give me patience and the strength to go through them. But the difficult situations have not gone away. It doesn’t seem like they will any time soon anyway. I have not become stronger or more patient from one day to another. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s really hard. But I have grown in my understanding of the purpose of these difficult times. Like St. Josemaría Escrivá said:

“Don’t say, ‘That person bothers me.’ Think: ‘That person sanctifies me.’”