Some regret that they could have been in a better place when it happened
September 29, 2026
We take pride in our health. Some narcissistically so. What we think is indestructible is only a whisker away from a wheelchair or permanent confinement to a bed. I missed being run down today. A close shave, or is it save? A lady driver was in a mighty hurry. She was overtaking a school bus with just enough space between the bus and me.
The number of accidents on Bangalore roads has jumped because of rash driving (like the lady in question) and potholes. I was side-stepping the potholes; she was over-stepping on the gas. What was I doing at the very moment I was saved?
I was listening to the Divine Retreat Centre Colombo 6.30 am Live Telecast of the Adoration on my way to Church to attend 7.30 am Mass. I go half an hour early to prepare myself for the Eucharistic Celebrations and to set up the altar for the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist on the deacon’s weekly day off.
To what do I owe being saved from the wheelchair or permanent confinement to a waterbed? The lady’s driving skill or divine providence? Both really. God took charge of the steering wheel. For just that moment, the driver had divine anointing, and so did I, for I was in His grace.
In an earlier reflection, ‘Let Your Yes Be Yes and No Be No’, posted on Substack on September 27, 2026, I wrote about my wife and the lady who called in with sharp chest pain. My wife advised the lady to listen to the Divine Retreat Centre UK podcast, which is broadcast live in India late in the evening. The advice was given in faith. The alternative was to rush down at that late hour or ask a relative to check on the lady to assist.
My wife listened to the podcast and fell asleep on the sofa. My wife woke up at 3 am and called the lady’s number to check on her. There was no reply. My wife panicked. Her faith deserted her. Did the lady succumb to the severe chest pain?
The lady was listening to the podcast at home. She, too, fell asleep. She slept so deeply that she did not hear her phone ring when my wife called. When my wife and daughter arrived at her door around 5 am she answered the door. There was nocturnal joy. Mary was visiting Elizabeth during her pregnancy.
How did my wife and the lady respond to the frightening pain in the chest? They offered it to God. And they slept. When the lady did not answer the phone, did my wife pray, or did she panic that her prayer had gone unanswered? That’s human. Faith goes only that far.
Faith is a difficult concept to grasp and to experience. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) Abraham’s faith in God is legendary. It was accounted to him as righteousness. (Gen 15:6). It is that difficult to imbibe and practice.
What was Abraham doing when he got the call? “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” (Gen 12:1)
I imagine Abram was at a wedding party like the one Mary, Jesus, and his apostles were at Cana when the wine ran out. (Lk 2:1-12). Somebody whispered in his ear that he was needed elsewhere. Like the wedding scene in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, when the Godfather, played by Marlon Brando, is called to his room to listen to those who have come to petition him.
So, Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. (Gen 12:4-5)
Where was Moses when God called him to return to Egypt to lead God’s people out?
One day Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up. “This is strange,” he thought. “Why isn’t the bush burning up? I will go closer and see.” (Exodus 3:1-3)
Where was David when Samuel was sent to anoint him as the King of Israel?
In this way Jesse brought seven of his sons to Samuel. And Samuel said to him, “No, the Lord hasn’t chosen any of these.” Then he asked him, “Do you have any more sons?”
Jesse answered, “There is still the youngest, but he is out taking care of the sheep.” The Lord said to Samuel, “This is the one—anoint him!” Samuel took the olive oil and anointed David in front of his brothers. Immediately the spirit of the Lord took control of David and was with him from that day on. (1 Sam 16:10,11, 13)
A parishioner talking about her recovery from cancer spoke of her prayer life. When the doctor broke the news to her and her family, she accepted it. She had already begun to offer her pain and discomfort before her diagnosis to God to use it for her sanctification. When the news came, she continued to offer it to God. It was painful for her and her family, with three young ones whom she could not bathe or help in any way. The often-scorned mother-in-law in Indian soap operas and from preachers’ pulpits stepped in and helped to take over the family chores while God sped her daughter, ok, daughter-in-law, to full recovery, stem-cell transfusion, notwithstanding. Was it divine grace? Or was the transfusion God’s intervention? Doctors are divided on it.
- Mathew Anthony
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