To find God in the midst of great suffering we have to look with faith. To look not at what can be seen, but at what cannot be seen; or, we might say, to look at what can be seen in the light of the unseen…like the centurion in the gospel who saw Jesus’ terrible dereliction and declared, “This man was God’s Son.” Even if Fr. Bernardo often found it hard to have much hope or to call to mind the Lord’s goodness, even if he felt at times forsaken, like Christ on the cross, the Lord’s steadfast love for him never ceased and his mercies have not come to an end even now. That faithfulness is seen more clearly as our outer nature wastes away since power is made perfect in weakness. In Jesus crucified God has entered right down into the furthest reaches of our misery and estrangement that we might know his love through and through, to the roots.