Those Who Injure Us Are to Be Loved and Welcomed as the Hand of God

It’s Fénelon Friday!

I have posted this letter before but it is good enough to warrant repeating.

LETTER 16: Those Who Injure Us Are to Be Loved and
Welcomed as the Hand of God

I certainly sympathize with you in all of your troubles, but I can do nothing else for you except pray that God will comfort you. You have great need of the power of the Holy Spirit, both to sustain you in this time of trouble, and also to restrain you in your natural desire to find a way out.

As to the letter regarding your family background, I think you should lay this matter before God alone, and ask Him to be merciful to the one who wants to hurt you. I have always noticed, or thought that I noticed, that you were quite sensitive on that point. But remember that when God deals with the problem of self, he always attacks the problem where the weakness is. Anyone knows that if you want to kill another person, you do not begin by striking a blow at their hair or their fingernails. No, you direct your attack to the vital organs such as the heart or the brain. Now when God is attacking the problem of self in us, he always touches the tenderest spot, that which is fullest of life. And many of the crosses which God distributes are designed to lay right on the most sensitive areas of our self-life. Even though this is a most humiliating experience to go through, it is best for you to allow yourself to be humbled. Quietness and peace during humiliation are the manifestations of Jesus in the soul.

I would also warn you of the temptation of “humble talk.” It is so easy to talk in very humble ways simply because it sounds good. But it is far better to be humble and say nothing about it. The humility that can still talk needs to be carefully watched! The old self gets a lot of comfort out of what it says to itself.

Don’t allow yourself to be upset by what people are saying about you. Let the world talk. All you need to be concerned about is doing the will of God. As for what people want, you can’t please everybody, and it isn’t worth the effort. One quiet moment in the presence of God will more than repay you for every bit of slander that will ever be leveled against you. You must learn to love other people without expecting any friendship from them at all. People tend to be quite fickle. They love us and leave us, they go and come. They shift from one position to another like a kite in the wind, or like a feather in the breeze. Let them do as they will. Just be sure that you see only God in them. They could do nothing to you without His permission. So, in the end, it is He that tests or blesses us, using them as we have need.

Francis Fénelon, Let Go (New Kensington, PA: Whittaker House, 1973)