Like a Tree Felled by the Storm

Someone once told me about a German engineer who, while exploring the Russian wilderness, came upon a gigantic pine tree lying across the mouth of a deep abyss. The tree, felled centuries earlier by a violent storm, had, with the passing of time, been transformed into solid stone. At that moment, it lay there to serve as a strong and secure bridge for travellers needing to cross the gorge.

My interlocutor told me yet another story, this time taken from the life of St. Gerard Majella, ardent disciple and spiritual son of St. Alphonsus Mary Liguori. Accused of immorality and with letters “proving” this calumny, he was forbidden by his venerable founder from receiving Communion or having any contact with people outside the Order. Thus, he suffered this disgrace and the suspicion of the brothers in his community for more than two months. This upright soul, aware of the deception that had tarnished his dignity, accepted being treated as an evildoer by his own superior – a Saint, moreover! – whom he loved so much.

What connection exists between these two situations, apparently so dissimilar?

The Redemptorist Saint was able to calmly overcome his ordeal based on the certainty that his life was entirely in God’s hands – hands that had marked out the thorny path by which he was to ascend to Heaven and fulfil his mission. St. Gerard had seared into the depths of his soul the unshakeable conviction that he would not be abandoned. He was not afraid to receive bad tidings, because his heart, like that of the Psalmist, was “firm, trusting in the Lord” (Ps 112:7).

This attitude is well illustrated by the tale of the pine tree, be it fact or fiction. There was every promise that it would be like the others: tall, strong, robust. Birds and squirrels would live in its branches. Perhaps in the future, furniture of the highest calibre would be manufactured with its wood… Until a tremendous windstorm brought it crashing to the ground.

Nevertheless, it is striking that the fury of the wind caused it to fall in so providential a manner, perfectly spanning a precipice. And there, resigned to its hapless fate, the pine tree languidly petrified over the years until it acquired a usefulness that it could never have imagined.

The enormous toppled tree exemplifies the trials and challenges that life presents throughout human existence: a financial crisis, the death of a loved one, a personal defect that we never manage to overcome… In situations like these, what keeps us steadfast are the certainties rooted in the Faith that we carry within our soul, like those that sustained St. Gerard Majella while he was suffering misjudgement.

Does our life not belong to God? Is it not true that He watches over us with infinite fatherly care, and that not even a hair that falls from our head escapes His notice (cf. Mt 10:30)? Do we not have the best guardian in the world, the very Mother of God? Has it ever been known that anyone who had recourse to Our Lady was left unaided?

How interesting is the image of petrified wood! Once part of a simple tree, it eventually becomes a hard and beautiful stone, which can serve as material for producing a variety of items, such as rosaries, decorative objects… or even our legendary bridge!

This means that when the weight of misfortunes, hardships and sorrows falls on our shoulders, we must never give in to despondency. No matter how many evils assail us, Providence will use them to make our souls stronger and more resolute, for our own benefit and that of future generations, following the example of the Redemptorist Saint. ◊