Disguise

We Catholics believe that Jesus is present in the bread and wine of mass.  It is a symbol of his presence.  To outsiders, this might seem kind of strange and quaint.  We, on the other hand, do not see our sufferings, failures, difficulties, as a way that God disguises the Holy Presence in these trying situations.  We try to petition God to take them away, or we think that God has abandoned us, so we abandon God.  Many of the events in our life are kind of "eucharistic" presences of God, hidden in the events.  Any cross in our life is seen as the absence of God, though we believe that Jesus, on the cross, is the presence of God.  That is, suffering is OK if God is doing the suffering.  I find that I whine less if I can hang onto the insight that God is hidden in much more of my daily life than I think.