Quick Answers to Problems

Let's look into this story:

Hannah is a very smart and faithful woman. She knows who has the answers to the question and problem that plague her life. She knows the answer does not lie in the wisdom and practices of the world; it is only God who can help her with her troubles. Therefore she sets off to the Temple to pray. As if she does not have enough problems, Eli thinks she is drunk. However, God hears her prayers and comes to her aid.

Each of us will face a similar situation. We will be confronted with seemingly insurmountable problems and we will be faced with the choice to fall into despair and give up, or to place our problem before God and await His solution. It is obvious that the second option is the better one. In fact, it is the only path that will lead to an answer.

Perhaps the most difficult thing we can be asked to do is to entrust everything to God; the truth is, this is the only way we will truly live and experience the life that God has planned for us. We can choose a path of self-sufficiency and we might have a very satisfied existence. However, look at it this way — if this is how good life can be without God as the center and guide of all things, then how much more satisfying and blessed could my life be if God was the center and master of every aspect of it? This is something we have to consider carefully because our choice will not only have immediate consequences to our life on earth; it could also have eternal consequences if we deliberately choose a life of sin.

Hannah is a wonderful example of a woman of faith; there are countless others in the Scriptures, the roll call of the saints and so on. Let us look to the examples of their lives in order to be inspired to give ourselves to God.

Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL