Our confidence that we will overcome all trials, dangers and sufferings is not in our own strength, which is always scarce, but in the protection of God, who has loved us from eternity and did not hesitate to give his Son to death for our salvation. Jesus himself has remained close by, in the Tabernacle, perhaps not far from where we live or work, to help us, to heal our wounds and to give us new courage on the road that will end in Heaven. It is enough for us to draw near to Him, who always waits. Nothing that can happen to us can separate us from God, as St. Paul teaches us in one of the readings of the Mass,8 for if God is with us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not in him give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nothing can separate us from Him, if we do not fall away.
"Clothed with grace, we will cross over the mountains (cf. Ps 103:10), and climb the slope of Christian duty without stopping. Using these resources, with good will, and praying the Lord to grant us a greater hope each day, we will possess the contagious joy of those who know they are children of God: if God is with us, who can defeat us? (Rom 8:31) .
Even if the Lord allows very strong temptations or family difficulties to grow, and sickness arrives or the road becomes more costly..., no trial by itself is strong enough to separate us from Jesus. On the contrary, with a visit to the nearest Tabernacle, with a well-done prayer, we will meet the powerful hand of God and we will be able to say: Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat. I can do all things in Him who comforts me. For I am convinced," continues St. Paul in the First Reading of the Mass, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God, who is in Christ Jesus. It is a song of confidence and optimism that we can make our own today.
St. John Chrysostom reminds us that "Paul himself had to fight against numerous enemies. The barbarians attacked him, his own guards laid traps for him, even the faithful, sometimes in great numbers, rose up against him, and yet Paul triumphed over everything. Let us not forget that the Christian faithful to the laws of his God will overcome both men and Satan himself". If we stay very close to Jesus, present in the Eucharist, we will win in all battles, even if at times we seem to lose.... The Tabernacle will be our fortress, because Jesus wanted to stay there to protect us, to help us in every need. Come to me... He calls us every day.