Trust in God's Providence | A Virtual Pilgrimage of Incarnation Reflections for Advent - Week 2

Fr. Grismer invites us to see every moment through the lens of God’s providence, discovering that the Incarnation assures us we never face life’s uncertainties alone — for God provides in all things, great and small.

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Transcript

Beloved, in this Advent season, I want to take a moment to reflect upon the confidence that we can have in God’s providence. People will say, “Oh, that was a coincidence,” but as Catholics, as Christians, we don’t actually believe in coincidences — because that would mean God has no hand in his creation. Yet he has intimately united himself to his creation, not as some esoteric, ethereal ideology, but literally, because he became flesh.

And as he became flesh, he united himself to our humanity and therefore to all of his creation. So — confidence in his providence. When we look at this, what’s the nugget of it? The nugget is that I don’t have to be worried about the things to come.

But the people of Israel were living in darkness because they had been captive by Rome at that time. Prior to that, it was Babylon. Prior to that, others. It was constant captivity. But there were moments when God would release them from earthly captivity. And when Jesus comes, he makes it known that he didn’t come to release us from earthly captivity, but to release us from spiritual captivity — the captivity of the soul, the captivity of the heart, the captivity of the mind.

And so the impulse we have is to put on the mind of Christ — that he has come to set us free. By his death on the cross, he has come to set us free.

Now, what’s powerful about this is that in Israel, it was a time when they felt like God wasn’t listening to them. They hadn’t had any prophets for 400 years, and they felt abandoned. But it was all in his divine providence. In fact, when Saint Paul says, “At the appointed time God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to save those under the law,” that’s you and me.

Jesus came at the appointed time — in the providence of the Father — so that when he extends his arms on the cross, he extends them between the past and the future.

And so, beloved, you and I are in this season right now, as we listen to this, in 2025 — the year of our Lord. And what does that mean? That his providence, his sacrificial love, and his salvation come to us even in the smallest of moments.

Even as I’m preparing for the Christmas season, I can look for his providence. It might be something small — like needing to get a gift for a friend. I know what I want to buy, I go to the store, and suddenly I find it, and it’s the last one. And I say, “Whoa — what good luck!” No, beloved. That is not luck. That is the providence of God.

On the flip side: I go to the store and they don’t have the thing I need. I try multiple stores, nothing. And I start to lose myself — rather than saying, “God, where is your providence in this? Where is your salvific act?”

Then one of two things may happen. One: the Lord says, “Look for something else,” and I look for something else and realize, “That’s actually a better idea than what I came up with.” Or two: I go to another store, and there I find the thing I was looking for — but it wasn’t really about the thing. It was about the person behind the counter. And as I’m checking out, I say, “Have a Merry Christmas. Have a blessed day.” And they respond, “Wow, thank you. I needed to hear that.” Or I simply ask, “How are you?”

We look at the providence of God not with human perspective, but with heavenly perspective. When something doesn’t go my way — or when something does go my way — praise the Lord. It was your providence, God. Because you allowed something greater to come about.

If we look at Jesus’s life and say, “I wish he would have come earlier. I wish he would have come later. Why doesn’t he come now, in 2025?” — I don’t know. But I do know that in the providence of God, he does all things according to his goodness, his love, his righteousness.

And if I rest myself upon that — if I allow myself to rest upon that — whoa. What happens? I become confident. I become utterly confident that God will always provide for me in all of my need.

So, beloved, may the peace of Christ rest in your heart, and may you rest with confidence in the providence of our loving Father. May Almighty God bless you — the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 God bless you.