By Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan, SJ
“For, while physical training is of limited value, devotion is valuable in every respect, since it holds a promise of life both for the present and for the future” — 1 Timothy 4:8
There was a couple who, from the time they got married decades ago to the present, relied on the wife as the main source of income for their family. There is nothing wrong with this. There are now many couples where the wife goes to work while the husband stays at home to look after their children, and some even say that children have better development under a father’s care.
Back to this family, the woman had a stable job and was valued by her company, while the man was a freelance artist who did not have a regular income, but there was no shortage of job opportunities.
But during the pandemic, even those with stable jobs faced the threat of redundancy, not to mention freelancers! And the wife was working for a company that was laying off people, with a bigger workload and a more demanding boss. If the standard of the product dropped, customers would cancel their orders at any time, so she was under a lot of pressure! But whenever she came home during this period, all she saw was her husband sitting alone on the sofa, staring at the glowing screen. Realising she had returned, he silently got up and went to the kitchen to bring out one or two plates of cooked food, and then they ate without a word.
She once saw him sobbing while washing the dishes, she went into the kitchen to comfort him, but he kept saying, “I’m useless, I haven’t had a job for a year or two!” Even though she tried to console him, he just kept saying that he was useless.
It was heartbreaking to see her husband become so depressed, and she herself was so overwhelmed by the pressure of work that she couldn’t breathe. They had no dependents. They thought they might just commit suicide together!
But when she looked up and saw the statue of Jesus hanging on the wall watching over them, she remembered the vow she had made to God when they were married: In good times and bad, in sickness and in health, I will always be there for you, for the sake of mutual support! Since God has accepted their vows, God would surely take care of them to the end.
During this period of loss, it was they who had neglected God, and life is not only what they could see, but also God in between them. So she invited her husband to make a joint decision to go on with their married life, asking God for a miracle through Matteo Ricci’s intercession, a miracle for their married life.
From that day on, the couple prayed daily for this intention, that they would go on together instead of destroying themselves. They believed that God would bring about a miracle in their lives. Slowly everything seemed to improve. The pandemic started to subside. The husband began to have small jobs so his confidence began to grow. The wife’s work was less strenuous because of the understanding of her boss. And their psycho-spiritual life improved.
Since the day they made their decision, they learned to trust God with everything, to believe that God has given them the best, and to live earnestly in trust, knowing that if they believe, everything will get better slowly in God’s time.
