We pray today in Midday Prayer, at least in the Italian translation of the Divine Office, the responsory to the scripture verse: ” In God my salvation and my glory; he is my defense.”
I was struck at the moment I prayed that line by the thought that perhaps it is a rare thing for one to live with that as an anchor, an adherence, an assurance. God is our defense. Whatever the trials or problem, God is our defense. He will supply our needs. He will give us the words and the ways of seeing through to its completion the difficulties of life we encounter.
God disciplines every son and daughter of his. We are his children if we accept the Truth and are baptized into his life and love. God will allow us to have our troubles. Jesus, his Son, faced enormous pain, suffering and even death…. should we expect anything less? But for Jesus, God was his defense. He called out to his Father, with whom he was one in his divine nature, and relied completely on Him for his defense before Pilate and the Sanhedrin.
It is to Jesus, to the Truth, that we must listen and come to know. If we do, we will be able to drop our own feeble defenses, our defensiveness, and rely on the Divine Assistance that is always ready to support us, defend us and lead us.
