The School of Love, March 26

TROUBLE

[continued from yesterday]

...We are not told of other troubles of hers, even at times when it might have been ex­pected. We are not told that she was troubled at the birth of her Child in poverty and want, or at the painful prophecy of Simeon, or because they were cruelly driven into exile, or when she wished to see her Son and, appar­ently, could not see Him, or even when she stood beneath His cross and watched Him bleed slowly to death.

That there was trouble we know; but we are not told of it. All we see is the quiet, enduring Mother, "keeping these things, and pondering them in her heart"; the model of many a silent, suffering woman, who sees, and feels, and says nothing while her heart within her is breaking. Here, then, again we have an aspect of trouble which many of us can appreciate.

From these examples, then, we can safely conclude that a troubled heart is not always a heart that is faltering or faithless. There are troubles from without and troubles from within which are consistent with perfection; to kill the power of feeling these troubles, to put ourselves in this sense beyond the reach of trouble, may be very good philosophy - let philosophers look to that! - but it is no special imitation of Our Lord and His Mother.

To be troubled at the loss of a friend is possible for a saint; to be above such trouble means, if anything, something on the other side. It is good to be troubled when the will of God is not done among men.

It is good to be troubled at the failure of those who are clearly called to high emprises. It is consistent to be troubled when God leaves us, as He does at times, wholly in the dark; in these and many other ways may trouble come to a faithful soul.

But there are many other troubles which we can well afford to lay aside. What are they? Their number is legion; and we shall know what they are as they come to us, if only we will cling to Him who is the Prince of Peace. It was of these that He spoke when he said:

" Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You believe in God, believe also in me."

And it was to those who were troubled in this way that He cried:

"Come to me, an you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden tight."

Our Lord was troubled in the Garden, but we are not told that He was troubled at the sight of the Cross.
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From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918