How deep is His Love! How awesome his mercy! How incredible His grace! I have experienced the manifestation of these sublime characteristics of God in my priestly ministry, both in my personal life and in that of many others. I would like to share one of such moments with you.
It was sometime in the late 1990s. She came to my office to request for prayers. She was a mother of four girls. The last was about 7 years old and the woman was in her late thirties. She thought that she had finished with childbearing until her husband told her one day that he wanted to take a second wife in search for an heir. This may shock some people who do not know about this negative cultural reality that is practiced in some cultures and some African countries still. Without an heir, a woman’s marriage is generally insecure. So, hearing her husband speak of such option alarmed the woman. She decided to seek a solution to this threat to the peace and joy of her Christian home. However, her efforts for five years to conceive again proved fruitless. She, therefore, sought God’s intervention to give her husband an heir through her.
About a year and a half after her visit, asking for divine intervention, God blessed her with another baby, a male child. She was thankful to God and testified unceasingly of this amazing grace.
Then came the time for the baptism of the child. She must attend the baptismal lessons with the husband as a sign of their readiness to raise the child in the Christian faith. But the husband refused to be part of this process, though he wanted his son baptised. Eventually the woman attended alone, both for the preparation and the actual Baptism. The Sunday following the Baptism, she was to dedicate the child to the Lord and to offer her official thanksgiving. Again, the husband refused to be part of this occasion. He only drove his entire family to the church for the event and went back home. This made the wife very sad, and she complained that he was being ungrateful to God and repudiating His kindness.
About three years after, the man went to pull his car from the garage one morning but did not notice that his little boy followed him to the garage. While driving the car in a reverse mode, he ran over his only heir. What a tragedy! That was how the gift of grace was lost.
Two years later, the woman came back to my office. She told me with tears, “I know we paid for ingratitude. But I want to approach the throne of mercy again, Father. Though I am in my late forties, I still need an heir.” I did not know what to tell her. I was very sorry for her but very upset with her husband and I told her so. When I remembered the words of St. Alphonsus de Liguori, “Ingratitude stops the flow of grace”, I felt she had lost her chance. I was very frank with her when I told her that I did not know how to present her case before the Lord. Though she saw my disinterest, she did not budge but rather reminded me of one of my favourite bible passages: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23). She looked straight into my eyes and said, “You have often quoted this passage. You have always assured us that God is ever faithful to his word. Is that no more true, Father?. I humbly plead for this mercy that never ceases.”
Those were very strong and touching words, but I was only a messenger not the Master. So, I encouraged her to visit the Master and discuss with him directly. She did. About two and a half years later, the Lord wiped her tears and gave her another heir—amazing grace!
