Tests, and opportunities to grow in sanctity. This was, as I understand it, the “little way” of St. Teresa of Lisieux, offering up every little inconvenience for love of God. By the continual practice of enduring little annoyances with charity, we form a habit of humbling ourselves and uniting ourselves to God’s will, and are thus better disposed to face greater hardships.
Concerning the latter, I quote from Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence by Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure, S.J. & St. Claude de la Colombiere:
[The Lord says:] “I make peace and create evil” (Is. 45:6) … “It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them” (Deut. 32:39) … [The Prophet Amos asks:] “Shall there be evil … in a city which the Lord hath not done?” (Amos 3:6) … (p. 6)
If then someone strikes you or slanders you … God can very well be, and actually is, the author of it; for existence and movement in man … proceed not from himself but from God, who acts in him and by him. … (p. 13)
Moreover, when God cooperates with the person who attacks or robs you, He doubtless intends to deprive you of health or goods because you are making a wrong use of them and they will be harmful to your soul. …
God … wishes to make you see your own faults, to humble you, deprive you of what you possess, in order to free you from vice and lead you to virtue… And in fact it is not this man’s evil intention or sin that causes you to suffer, humiliates or impoverishes you, but the loss of your well being, your good name, or your possessions. … (p. 14)
Neither should we then stop to consider the evilness of those to whom God gives power to act on us or be grieved at their wicked intentions, and we should keep ourselves from feelings of aversion towards them. Whatever their particular views may be, in regard to us they are only instruments of well-being, guided by the hand of an all-good, all-wise, all-powerful God, who will allow them to act on us only insofar as it is of use to us. … (p. 16)
