"Lox in tenebrous lucent” is a new testamentary guarantee that in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, man, lost in the darkness of the world and of his experience, can hope, can find a providential light in him. Also in the Old Testament, light as a metaphor of God’s providence in favour of the needy man, is a constant thematic. In fact, the entire Judaic-Christian tradition proclaims God as light in favour of man. This, in his postlapsarian condition, often finds himself in darkness, “In the shadow of death” (Luke 1, 79). He faces the challenges of ambiguity, weakness and paralysis before the need of acting in the right way, the need of taking the right decisions for the wellbeing of the human society and of its own.

Providence in the Catechism

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the divine Providence as “the dispositions through which God leads creation towards … perfection”. It does not make a direct reference to the original sin, but acknowledges the incomplete situation of creation, saying that it is “in a state of way” towards the ultimate perfection to which God has destined it and which it has still to reach”. Creation is on the way, but man also, the apex of creation, is on his way. God has conferred to his human creatures the responsibility of managing creation; it is on the way finding it difficult to carry on the existence and the Project, which God has entrusted to him. Nevertheless, man is not alone in this mission. In fact, the Catechism says, the major responsibility is with God, who, “keeps and governs his creation with his Providence”.

Some people doubt whether the presence and action of God in favour of man be a rather general and abstract reality. To this doubt the Catechism answers that “the solicitude of Divine Providence is concrete and immediate; it takes care of everything, from the tiniest things to the greatest events of the world and of history”. God commits himself in favour of his creatures in all their individual and social needs, always in a concrete and specific way. The Catechisms, quoting the book of Wisdom, teaches us that the providential care of God “extends from one boundary of the world to the other forcefully”. He governs everything with excellent bounty”. God is powerful, is good and acts decidedly in creation in favour of man. He watches everything, the Catechism says, even “what will be done by the free action of his creatures”. The Catechism clearly teaches on divine Providence in the light of the Scriptures. It says that “the testimony of the Scriptures is unanimous”, insisting that “the Sacred Books affirm the absolute sovereignty of God over the course of events … over history and the world”.

The providence in the Bible

The Old Testament is very clear in insisting that God exercises his sovereignty on creation and on man. God answers firmly the disobedience of Adam and Eve; He calls strongly Kings and Prophets and demands the faithfulness of man. “See now that I, I am he, and beside me there is no other god” (Deut 32, 39). He expresses his power in great miracles, such as creation, the flood, the plagues of Egypt and the division of the Red Sea. Before the ephemeral projects of men, that of God is sovereign, “Many are the plans in the human heart, but the purpose of Yahweh – that stands firm” (Pr 19, 21).

At the same time, the Old Testament is equally clear on divine Providence. It says that, just at the beginning of creation, God gives an answer to the powerlessness, to the solitude and the fear of man with his providential love. God creates the woman so that man may not stay alone (Gen 2, 18) and marks Cain to protect him from his enemies (Gen 4, 15). God promises his providential company to Moses, to Joshua and to the Prophets, even to Job (Job 42, 1-17). He re-assures the psalmist that “his faithfulness will be his shield and his armour” (Psalm 91, 5). Undoubtedly, the most dramatic providential commitment of God towards man, in the Old Testament, is in the book of Exodus, in the litany of the exceptional gestures of God to free his people from the slavery in Egypt. They are: the vocation of Moses, the plague and the various calamities, the liberation of the people of Israel, the gift of the Decalogue, the pillar of fire and the manna in the desert.

After Moses, there are the Psalmists who appreciate the providential love of God for man. The psalms use a great variety of images to recognise and describe the ample arch of providence. God is a shepherd, who nourishes guides and protects (Ps 23); God is light and salvation (Ps 27) and answers the anguish of man (Ps 120). He has a particular solicitude for the poor, the needy (Ps 113) and the humble (Ps Os 116). God is for man a rock and a fort (Ps 18), offers him counsel and refuge (Ps 16). He is eternally merciful and faithful (Ps 100), giving to man authority over creation (Ps 8). When man proves weak, unable, God comes to the rescue, “Yahweh will do all things for me” (Ps 38, 5).

The narrator of Psalm 139 is particularly dramatic in his imagining divine Providence. He speaks of the omniscience of God not as a distant, disinterested quality, but as a commitment in favour of man, even when this resists against Him, “your hand will be guiding me, your right hand holding me fast” (v.10). It qualifies God as the creator, not only of the vast universe, but also of every human being, of every man in his individuality, on whom God watches with love and care, even from before his birth.

Psalm 91 underlines the protecting providence of God, who is “shield and armour” (v.5) for man. He frees, consoles him and is faithful to him. It then adds two interesting elements, namely, the presence of angels, providential symbols par excellence, to safeguard man in danger, and the voice of God, who answers man in the context of an intimate relation freely established by man with God. “… because he entrusted himself to me and has known my name” (14), “I will save him … I will make him glorious” (15).

The New Testament, the Providence of God        in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ .He is the Incarnation of God and, therefore, of God’s Providence in favour of Man. He is the fullness and fulfilment of various personages and providential acts, which have preceded Him in the Old Testament. Nevertheless, the witnesses to divine Providence precede and follow Jesus.  In the episode of the Annunciation to Mary, for instance, the angel Gabriel announces the incarnation and mitigates the fear of Mary with the providential security of the Lord, of God, of the Most High (Luke 1, 28-35). Mary herself becomes a providential figure for her cousin Elisabeth. In her “Magnificat”, she proclaims the great things God does and will continue to do for man (Luke 1, 46-56).  Even in his Benedictus, Zachariah, using metaphors of light, praises the providential commitment of God, manifested in the Baptist and in Jesus, the providential sun, which will rise for the salvation of humanity (Luke 1, 68-79). In their apostolic letters, Paul, Peter and John proclaim the good news of God’s love manifested in Jesus Christ repeatedly in favour of man. They do it using, usually, metaphors of light: Jesus is the “light for those who are in darkness (Ro 2, 19), guides man “from darkness to his admirable light” (1 Peter, 2, 9): “God is light and in Him, there is no darkness” (1 Jo 1, 5).

Nevertheless, God reveals his providence, above all, in Jesus. In his teachings, he repeatedly exhorts his disciples never to hesitate or be afraid because “I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Matthew 28, 20), because “I am the light of the world” (Jo 9,5). As we shall see later, in the parables, he invites his followers to recognise and to experience the providential love of God.

All the miracle of Jesus are gestures and signs of God’s providential love for man. Two healings stand out of all the others: that of the paralytic , under the porch of the temple, who has been ill for  thirty-eight years and has nobody to look after him (Jo 5, 1-10); and that of the leper, who shyly asks his healing, “Lord, if you want, you can heal me” (Matthew 8, 2). In both cases, Jesus acts very tenderly and is deeply touched, unable to deny his mercy.

Two are also the great miracles of resurrection from death: that of the son of the widow of Naim (Luke 7, 11-16) and that of Lazarus (Jo 11, 34.44). These miracles also have an evident merciful and providential character. In both cases Jesus feels particularly moved, before the widow who has lost his unique son – when Jesus told her ‘Do not cry’- and before the crying of Mary, when Jesus was deeply moved and wept”. Before the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish, Jesus has compassion for the hungry crowd (Jo 6, 1.13); he also accomplishes the miracle of the calmed storm (Matthew 8, 23-27) as a providential answer to the fear and desperation of his disciples.

There are two more encounters, which prove how Jesus stands in favour of man and ho man is free to answer or not. The first encounter is when Jesus asks Zaccheus to get down of the sycamore and offers him the possibility of a relation with him. Zaccheus accepts freely and enthusiastically and salvation enters his life (Luke 19, 1-10). The second one is the providential encounter between Jesus and the rich youth (Luke 18.18-25), which takes place with an initiative of the boy. This encounter could become an opportunity of salvation for him, but the youth freely refuses the providential invitation and goes away “very sad”. It seems that he has understood what he is missing.

Even the greatest miracle of Jesus, the Last Supper/Eucharist, has clearly a providential scope, namely, the spiritual nourishment and the salvation of man.  It brings to memory the providential miracles of God in favour of the people of Israel in the Old Testament: the Exodus, the manna, Easter and anticipates the providential miracle of the passion and resurrection of Christ.

Providence in the liturgy

We perceive the notion of divine Providence – and the holy conviction that we are not alone, that God is with us, protects and guides us- in various dimensions of our liturgical Christian life. Providence, for instance, is a leitmotiv of the structure and contents of the liturgy of the hours. The invitatory psalm inserts the whole hour in the context of the Lord’s Providence, “He is our God and we the flock, which he leads” (Psalm 95, 7). The sung psalms, usually, move those who pray to deepen the various experiential aspects of Providence. In the morning, the canticle of Zachariah (Luke 1, 66-79) reveals “the merciful bounty of our God”, that commits itself providentially in favour of man. Using the metaphor of the light, he defines this commitment like “ a sun that rises, to enlighten those who are in darkness and in the shadow of death and guides our steps on the way of peace”.  In the evening the canticle of Mary (Luke 1, 46-55) expresses her absolute trust in a God, who commits himself in favour of his people , “He has raised high the lowly, he has filled the starving with good things, he has come to the help of Israel his servant”.

The Eucharistic liturgy celebrates the new Pasch, the providential act par excellence of God-in-Jesus in favour of man; the death and resurrection of Christ is the fulfilment of the first Pasch, expression of the providential commitment of God for his people. The Eucharistic bread recalls another providential gesture of God, the manna in the desert. It is the bread of life, the providential food, which Jesus has left to man for his salvation.

In the sacrament of reconciliation, we live the providential forgiveness of God and the healing of our relation with him, who offers us hope and life. In the creature, we celebrate the gift of the Spirit of God. He gives us the strength and the energy to live our faith and to face his challenges as adults. In the sacrament of the sick, the Anointment of the infirm, God expresses his Providence, once again, as a guarantee of his saving presence in the darkness of suffering and in the dark movement of death.

The Advent and Christmas liturgies reveal God’s Providence in a particular way. The coming of Jesus manifests the full realisation of the promises and of the providential acts of God throughout the centuries of the history of Israel. The extraordinary beauty of the readings from Isaiah proclaims the providential enthusiasm of the feast. “The people who walked in darkness saw a great light; a light shone on those ho lived in the dark earth” (Is 9, 1), and the titles conferred to the baby – “Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal Father, Prince-of-Peace (Is 9, 1) – all of them have a purely providential strength. The liturgy, which expresses in a better way the providential commitment of God, in favour of man, is that of Easter vigil. The diffused symbolism of fire and water calls back the experience of providence, like the dramatic procession with the Easter candle and the litany of the Lumen Christi, Deo gratias. The great proclamation of the Exultet - Jesus Christ … with his innocent blood erased the obligation contracted by the old sin … oh wonderful condescendence of his mercy towards us”2. –  associates the liberation of the people of Israel with the liberation of the Christian people in the resurrection of Christ, thanks to the providential love of God.  The pillars of fire of the Old Testament recalls make us think of the Easter candle and the light of Christ. The readings of the Old Testament concretise the joyful poetry of the Exultet, remembering the various phases of the providential commitment of God, while the readings of the New Testament announce the definitive guarantee of God’s Providence, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The paradox of the ambiguity and of the kenosis 

In Jesus Christ, we see the fullness of God’s providence, at rich range, in the manifestations of his power in favour of man; on one side, we have the light and transparency of his miracles: the transfiguration and the resurrection are expressions of God’s providence for the salvation of man. On the other side, there is the obscure opacity of his passion and death, the terrible paradox of the absence of God and his Providence.

In the human experience, there is the temptation of resisting against this paradox, of believing that divine Providence is a universal remedy, an experience, which solves everything, soon and perhaps for good.  The long Biblical tradition does not support this too much idealistic presumption, fruit of a spiritual fantasy. Human experience necessarily includes dark moments, zones of ambiguity. The gift of God’s grace, of his providential presence does not dispense man from this universal experience. After his sin, Cain has the guarantee of God’s protection, but this does not exempt him from fatigue. Moses, the great prophet of God, dies before entering the Promised Land. The Psalmist complains, “Our days pass under your wrath, our lives are over like a sigh” (Ps 90, 9). Jesus, the incarnation of God’s Providence, lives the failure of his mission, the death on the cross and the experience that God has abandoned him. It is like this for every man: while God’s providence offers a fundamental hope, we must accept, live and integrate the normal ambiguities of life in this hope. 

The paradoxical, but essential fact that the providential figure must submit to the experience of kenosis; the radical self-emptying to which the Logos of God submitted himself in the incarnation and in the experience of the cross belong to this notion of providence. In fact, Jesus is aware of this destiny. He says, openly and with serenity, that he will be a victim of betrayal and speaks of his death (Matthew 17, 22-23). He proclaims the radical poverty, “the son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8, 20) and the freedom of his life “here are my mother and my brothers” (Matthew 12, 49). He expects the same liberating kenosis from his disciples (Matthew 10, 10). Jesus insists on the consequences deriving from being his disciples, associating their destiny to that of the prophets (Mt 5, 11.129. Both Peter and Paul learn this lesson well. It is just by acknowledging his own kenotic  state that Peter finds the possibility of understanding the providential miracle of the “Bella” door of the temple; “I have nether silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have” (Acts, 3,6). Paul proclaims the paradox with great freedom, “I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions, for it is when I am weak that I am strong” (2Co 12, 10).

Some caveat regarding providence

In the popular conscience, God’s providence, usually, is a grace man can gain through some good action. For instance, the blessed candles, kindled during a storm guarantee the safety of the house; the image of the Sacred Heart or, perhaps more popular, of Fr. Pious in the dashboard of the car protects from accidents; the sign of the cross of a passenger, before the landing of the plane, to avoid a disaster. The problem reveals itself dramatic if we think, for instance, of a Lazio player who kisses his miraculous medal before the crucial match, to guarantee the victory of his team, and the Milan player, which accomplishes the same gesture. Which team will God side? On which one will the providential blessing of victory reach? I do not want to deny the value of devotional acts, yet these almost fundamentalist positions, perhaps also infantile, arouse a series of anthropological and theological question. These are important in themselves. They are also critical for discussions on providence in the cinema, which the following chapter will develop.

With regard to God, we must respect his absolute autonomy, the integrity of creation and God’s relation with it. The idea of providence, which considers God as a kind of rescue repairer, always ready to interfere in creation, or a “113” ready for every, even infantile, solicitation of man,   is not acceptable. We need to safeguard and to respect also the freedom of God and allow him to decide, to choose, to move or not, before the prayers of man.

With regard to man, we must insist on a notion of providence, which respects both the freedom and responsibility of man. We must take seriously the mission that God confers to man in Genesis (Gn1, 26; 2, 19-20) of managing creation well and of accepting the consequences, when he does not manage himself well the area in which he lives. We cannot accept the notion of providence as a magic power at the disposal of man –of his prayers or magic formulae- to repair the damages, of which, after all, he is the only responsible person.

Starting from the above-discussed Biblical synthesis, we need to insert every discussion on providence in the relation of love, respect and freedom between God and man, his creature. Presuming the freedom and the love of God, as well as his desire to side man, we can speak of providence as the answer of God to the man who loves. Only when man is ready to love, when he succeeds to love, God “can” act in him. Man’s love, somehow, leaves God “free” to move in his experience. The God, whom he loves, acts in the same wavelength with man, for his wellbeing and for the wellbeing of the world.

The parable of providence

As we have already said, Jesus in his person, is the incarnation of God’s providential love. He incarnates, concretises this providence in his prophetic gestures an in his propositional preaching, “Pray to your Father ….and your Father … will reward you” (Mt 6,6) and “Ask and it will be given to you; search and you will find” (Mt 7,7). Moreover, perhaps even oftener, Jesus reveals the providence of God using a metaphoric language and narrating parables. He speaks of himself as of the bread of life and as light of the world. In the Our Father, he speaks of God as of a father, a provident Abba, who nourishes, forgives, protects and frees us from difficulties. Moreover, Jesus utilises many parables to reveal his providential commitment and that of God, in favour of man; for instance, the parable of the good shepherd (Jo 10, 1-16) and that of the lost sheep (Mt 18, 12-14). In the parable of the workers of the vineyard, Jesus reveals the providential generosity of God (Mt 20, 1-16), while in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, he highlights the great mercy of God (Luke 18,9-14). In that of the vine and the branches, he proclaims the fruitful intimacy, which God offers man (Jo 15, 1-8).

The major part of the parables represents a one way direction of providence –God’s love serving man- but some of them seem to indicate a suggestive reciprocity, that is, somehow, the providential commitment of God to man, is useful also to God! (Jo 15, 8). In the parable of the vine and the branches, Jesus adds that the fruitfulness of the branches, that is of man, serves for the glory of God (Jo 15,8); in the version of Luke, the parable of the lost sheep, he speaks of the great joy in heaven (Luke 15,7). Nevertheless, (Luke 15, 11-24) Jesus suggests the reciprocity of the providential relation between God and man, in the parable of the generous father or the prodigal son.  In this splendid narration, behind the main providential dynamics of the father’s love, a saving event for the son, we see the parallel and reciprocal dynamics of the return of the son. He gives back to his father his identity and role. The father saves the son, and the repented son gives hope, integrity and a great joy to his father: “Let us eat and rejoice”.

Looking at the subsequent essay of this collection, we see that Jesus creates narrations and fiction representations to communicate the good news of the providential love of God for man, a technique used also by writers and artists in the millenniums o Christian tradition.  It follows that to represent metaphorically this providence of God in the works of the seventh art, the cinema, is more than valid.  The next chapter is oriented towards this possibility.