Easy when you know how!

I’d been mentally preparing my programme for the broadcast on Wednesday, which also happens to be the feats of All Saints. Knowing that I had a short feature on the process of changing an ‘ordinary’ person into a saint, I wandered into the office this morning and happily tried to transfer the recording from my little recorder to the editing system at Vatican Radio.

It was a disaster! The interview part was fine, but it sounded as though I’d done it in front of Victoria Falls, so loud and intrusive was the background noise. I tried everything that cam to mind, but without success. If I managed to eliminate the waterfalls, I’d been equally successful in cutting out the useful material also. Yet I had to keep on going because I knew that the sound was perfect if played back on my recorder.

In the end, I gave up and admitted defeat. My last hope was that one of the technicians might be able to perform a miracle. He did. In less than five minutes, he had achieved success whereas, in the space of one hour, I’d managed failure. All he did was to convert my stereo recording into mono and, lo and behold, the cascade of water disappeared! It was so easy: the only obstacle was that I hadn’t known that all I had to do was to click the computer mouse in the right place.

Life can be very difficult sometimes, but often, it’s my own fault. If I can be humble enough to recognise that someone might have one or two answers more than I do, then the solution is already halfway achieved. I create more problems for myself when I recognise that I’m in partnership with God, but try to make myself the senior partner and to make him fit in with my own ideas.

Yesterday I listened to a recording of a talk given by a Benedictine monk about the miracle of Cana. Somewhere towards the end of the talk, Fr. Augustine remarked that if we go to Mary for help, she will give the same advice that she gave to the attendants at Cana, “Do what he tells you.” It sounds so straightforward but can also be frightening. What happens if Jesus asks more of me than I can supply? Yet, all the attendants had to do was to put water into some containers. Jesus did the rest.

God is not going to ask of me more than I can give him in response. He will do all the complicated bits and pieces. He has the know-how. I don’t. That’s why it’s sheer commonsense to go to him for help. It’s easy when he knows how!

God bless,
Sr. Janet
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