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Posts Tagged ‘Trust’

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St. Joseph by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2012/03/16 at 1:00 AM

• This weekend the Church celebrated the feast of one of her greatest saints: St. Joseph! As we consider all the many wonderful examples of faithfulness we find amongst the saints, it’s difficult to imagine anyone more beloved in God’s eyes than good St. Joseph.

• Indeed, St. Joseph holds a very special place in Heaven because He was given the most difficult and important responsibility in human history: the earthly care of the Christ Child and His Immaculate Mother, and he completed this task with perfect fidelity.

• St. Joseph is such a great saint because he trusted the Lord, even when doing so caused him much suffering.

• Think of the pain Joseph must have felt when he could find no shelter for the pregnant Mary in Bethlehem, nor a place for her to deliver the Son of God, thus forcing him to allow the Queen of Heaven to give birth to our Redeemer in a cave.

• Imagine the anguish in Joseph’s heart upon hearing Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus and Mary would be future victims of our sins, or the fear that seized him upon learning that Jesus was in danger from Herod, requiring the Holy Family to flee to Egypt.

• Yet in all of these sufferings, St. Joseph trusted in God’s goodness and providence, even though he may not have understood why such things had to happen, and by trusting in the Lord, St. Joseph was able to help bring about the wonderful events of our salvation.

• Because he trusted much, our Lord has now entrusted St. Joseph with the patronage of the entire universal Church. Not only is St. Joseph the Patron of the Universal Church, but he is also a model for all of us who seek to deepen our trust in the Lord.

• And learning to trust our Lord is supremely important, for without a generous willingness to trust our Lord, we will never grow in the docility and obedience necessary to grow in holiness.

• We must remember that, while our salvation is something we cooperate with and participate in, the actual work of our salvation is done by God.

• Therefore, we must trust our Lord if we hope to be saved by Him, for cooperating in the work of our salvation always requires the pain of dying to one’s self and one’s desires.

• This is why we say with the psalmist today: “Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in You.”

• For the past two weeks I’ve spoken about the necessity of obedience, but our obedience to God must not be blind, nor must it be given begrudgingly. To the contrary, our obedience to God must be rooted in a loving trust in God.

• And we are given a beautiful example of loving trust in the person of Abram, the soon-to-be Abraham: the man we refer to as “our Father in Faith.”

• Abram was a man for whom our Lord had great plans. As our Lord said to him in our first reading: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.”

• Like St. Joseph, Abram’s great virtue was his trust in the Lord. Abram trusted that the Lord would provide him an heir, even though he was old and his wife was sterile.

• Abram even trusted the Lord enough to be willing to kill that beloved heir when our Lord tested him by instructing him to do so. Because of this trust, Abram became Abraham, the father of many nations, and our father in faith.

• Just as our Lord had great plans for Abram, He also has great plans for all of us. While most of us will never be great in the eyes of the world, our Lord does desire that we be great in His eyes by becoming holy.

• As St. Paul tells St. Timothy today, God “saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to His own design.” But this holiness can only be achieved if we are willing to conform our lives to Christ, most especially in His suffering.

• It is our trust in God that enables us to bear our “share of hardship for the gospel.” Our trust enables us to see our sufferings with the faith that tells us that our Lord can make us holy through all that we suffer when we unite our sufferings to His.

• Of course trusting in the Lord can be a difficult thing, especially since we cannot see Him, and because it is often difficult to hear Him. Yet during His life on earth, Jesus gave us many proofs of His trustworthiness. Today’s Gospel story is a perfect example.

• Our Gospel today tells us of the familiar yet amazing story of Jesus’ transfiguration before Peter, James and John. In this event these three apostles are given a glimpse of Jesus’ glory and a foreshadowing of His resurrection from the dead.

• In this miraculous event Jesus proves that He is Who He claims to be: the only Son of God. Up to this point in His life, Jesus’ divine glory had been obscured and hidden by his human flesh.

• Although our Lord had worked many miracles that revealed His divine power, never before had Jesus revealed His glory in such a way. And He did this not only to strengthen the faith of the apostles, but to strengthen our faith as well.

• The very beautiful thing about this Gospel story is that, as we allow this mystery of Jesus’ life to strengthen our trust in Him, we, too, are transfigured.

• You see, the more that we trust our Lord, the more docile and obedient we become. The more docile and obedient we become, the more willing we are to bear our share of hardship for the sake of the Gospel.

• And the more we are willing to suffer in this way, the more we are transfigured into a greater likeness to Christ Himself.

• My dear brothers and sisters, how much do you trust our Lord?

• Our blessed Lord has great plans for all of us. He has plans for all of us to become holy and righteous in His sight. But for this to happen, we must trust in His providential care – even when doing so causes us to suffer; especially when doing so causes us to suffer.

• Through the graces of this Mass and through the strengthening from the Eucharist we are about to receive, may all of us grow in our absolute trust in God’s love and mercy for us.

• And by our trust in Him, may all of us be transfigured into a greater likeness of Him.

Copyright 2011 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

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“Place everything in God’s hands”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/12/14 at 9:11 AM

As well as having given you abundant and effective grace, the Lord has given you a brain, a pair of hands and intellectual powers so that your talents may yield fruit. God wants to work miracles all the time – to raise the dead, make the deaf hear, restore sight to the blind, enable the lame to walk… – through your sanctified professional work, which you will have turned into a holocaust that is both pleasing to God and useful to souls. (The Forge, 984)

Your boat — your talents, your hopes, your achievements — is worth nothing whatsoever, unless you leave it in Christ’s hands, allowing him the freedom to come aboard. Make sure you don’t turn it into an idol. In your boat by yourself, if you try to do without the Master, you are — supernaturally speaking — making straight for shipwreck. Only if you allow, and seek, his presence and captaincy, will you be safe from the storms and setbacks of life. Place everything in God’s hands. Let your thoughts, the brave adventures you have imagined, your lofty human ambitions, your noble loves, pass through the heart of Christ. Otherwise, sooner or later, they will all sink to the bottom together with your selfishness. (Friends of God, 21)

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“Let us try never to lose our supernatural outlook”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/11/16 at 7:45 AM

There is a remedy for those anxieties of yours. Be patient, have rectitude of intention and look at things with a supernatural perspective. (Furrow, 853)

Let us try, therefore, never to lose our supernatural outlook. Let us see the hand of God in everything that happens to us: both in pleasant and unpleasant things, in times of consolation and in times of sorrow, as in the death of someone we love. Your first instinct always should be to talk to your Father God, whom we should seek in the depths of our souls. And we cannot consider this a trivial or unimportant matter. On the contrary, it is a clear sign of a deep interior life, of a true dialogue of love. Far from being psychologically deforming, constant prayer should be for a Christian as natural as the beating of his heart. (Friends of God, 247)

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Real Hope

In 14 Book Corner on 2011/11/04 at 1:11 AM
 Excerpt from ‘The Forty Days’ Teaching by Cardinal John Henry Newman in PRAYERS, VERSES AND DEVOTIONS. Ignatius Press.

God has determined, unless I interfere with His plan, that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness.  He looks upon me individually, He calls me by my name, He knows what I can do, what I can do best, be what is my greatest happiness, and He means to give it to me.

God knows what is my greatest happiness, but I do not . . . God leads us by strange ways; we know He wills our happiness. . . . We are blind; left to ourselves we should take the wrong way; we must leave it to Him.

I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. . . . I am necessary for His purpose. . . . I am a link in a chain . . . of connections between persons.

I will trust Him. Whatever, whenever I am, I can never be thrown away. . . . He knows what He is about.

How constant is He in His affection! “I will never leave thee or forsake thee.”  He did not forsake me in my sin. . . . He found me and regained me. . . . He resolved to restore me, in spite of myself. . . . What does He ask of me, but that, as He has loved me with an everlasting love, so I should love Him in such poor measures as I can show.


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“You do not trust yourself at all, but trust in God for everything”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/08/16 at 7:11 AM

You have never felt so absolutely free as you do now that your freedom is interwoven with love and detachment, with security and insecurity; for you do not trust yourself at all, but trust in God for everything. (Furrow, 787)

God’s love is a jealous love. He is not satisfied if we come to meet him with conditions. He longs for us to give ourselves completely, without keeping dark corners in our heart, where the joy and happiness of grace and the supernatural gifts cannot reach. Perhaps you are thinking, ‘if I say “yes” to this exclusive Love might I not lose my freedom?’…

Each one of us has at some time or other experienced that serving Christ Our Lord involves suffering and hardship; to deny this would imply that we had not yet found God. A soul in love knows however that when such suffering comes it is only a fleeting impression; the soul soon finds that the yoke is easy and the burden light, because Jesus is carrying it upon his shoulders as he embraced the wood of the Cross when our eternal happiness was at stake [1]. But there are people who do not understand. They rebel against the Creator, in a sad, petty, impotent rebellion, and they blindly repeat the futile complaint recorded in the Psalms, ‘let us break away from their bondage, rid ourselves of their toils’ [2]. They shrink from the hardship of fulfilling their daily task with heroic silence and naturalness, without show or complaint. They have not realized that even when God’s Will seems painful and its demands wounding, it coincides perfectly with our freedom, which is only to be found in God and in his plans.

Such people barricade themselves behind their freedom. ‘My freedom! My freedom!’ they cry. They have their freedom, but they don’t use it. They look at it, they set it up, a clay idol for their petty minds to worship. Is this freedom? What use is this treasure to them, if there is no commitment guiding their whole lives? Such behaviour goes against their very dignity and nobility as human beings. They are left aimless, with no clear path to guide their footsteps on this earth. You and I have met such people. They then let themselves be carried away by childish vanity, by selfish conceit, by sensuality. (Friends of God, 28-29)

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Faith

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/07/29 at 6:11 AM

• The Quaker theologian, D. Elton Trueblood, once said that: ‘Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.”

• The Gospel  gives us two wonderful examples of faith in the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus, the synagogue official. In both we see people who trust unreservedly in our Lord’s goodness, mercy, and ability to heal.

• Yet with both Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage we are given an indication that they had some fear, which in the spiritual life is the opposite of faith.

• We are told that the woman with the hemorrhage approached Jesus with fear and trembling, and after Jairus is told that his daughter is dead, Jesus tells him to not be afraid, but to have faith.

• But despite their fear, both Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage reach out with faith to our Lord, which makes their faith all the more beautiful.

• Their faith in Christ is stronger than whatever fear they are experiencing, and in trusting Jesus without reservation they reap the rewards of faith: Jairus’ daughter is raised from the dead, and Jesus tells the woman: “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

• The Catechism teaches us that: “Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith ‘man freely commits his entire self to God’” (CCC 1824).

• Faith, along with the virtues of hope and charity, is a gift that is implanted within us by God at our baptism. But at the same time, “faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals Himself” (CCC 166).

• Faith is how we adhere to God; it’s how we grow in our relationship with the Lord. And yet faith does not act in a vacuum. Faith must be exercised with her sister virtues of hope and especially charity. As St. James tells us: “Faith without works is dead” (Jas 2:20).

• In other words, our faith can be lost! If we fail to practice our faith, if we fail to trust our Lord as we should, our faith will wane. If our faith wanes, we will not grow in virtue.

• It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Yet, Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues.

• Therefore, everyone should always ask for the grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow God’s calls to love what is good and shun evil if we wish to grow in faith, and thereby grow in holiness. (cf. CCC 1811).

• As Christians we must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it, for faith is necessary for salvation (cf. CCC 1816).

• We hear this in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus tells us: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33).

• The one thing that undermines our faith the most is fear. Fear weakens our faith, thereby weakening our relationship with God, making it harder for us to be saved. When we live in fear rather than faith, we forfeit our Lord’s grace and are carried away by the cares of the world.

• Think of the story of St. Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on the water. Unlike the other apostles, Peter had the faith to get out of the boat and begin walking on the water.  Unfortunately, he became frightened because of the stormy waves, and thus he began to sink.

• Peter’s fear was his undoing in that moment, and so he fell prey to the stormy waters. And the same is true for us. If our faith in Jesus is not rock solid, or if we give in to fear, we, too, will fall prey to the storms of life.

• So the question before us is how do we strengthen our faith to overcome whatever fears plague us? Our answer can be found in the first epistle of John. St. John tells us that: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear” (I John 4:18).

• And so my friends, if we want to overcome fear and grow in faith, we must learn to love God with all our hearts, mind and strength. But at the same time we must also learn how much God loves us.

• We get a glimpse of the great love God has for us in the second reading. St. Paul tells us about the “gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.”

• Paul’s point, of course, is that God loves us so much that He gave up everything – even His very life – so that we might become the sons and daughters of God.

• And, of course, we see the great goodness and love of Jesus in the way He heals both the woman with the hemorrhage and the daughter of Jairus in today’s Gospel.

• As followers of Christ we must live our lives firmly convinced of God’s deep and abiding love for all of us – faithfully trusting that He will always do what is best for us.

• Considering the great suffering that we see in our world, perhaps it is easy for us to think that God is indifferent, that He doesn’t care for us. Yet our readings today tell us differently. They tell us very clearly that God is love!

• Moreover, the sufferings we bear in this life are often the means God uses to strengthen us in faith, hope and love.

• Look around us, my friends. God constantly reveals Himself to us: in the beauty of creation, in the love we experience with our family and friends, in the way He providentially cares for all of our needs.

• We see God’s indescribable love in the liturgy, in the gift of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, and most especially in His Passion, death, and resurrection. Look at the crucifix! Could anyone but a loving God do so much for us?

• My dear friends, ask yourself what it is you fear in this life. What is it that keeps you from living your faith fully?

• Then examine all the ways that God shows His love to you and to all of us, and make the decision to love God more so that your faith will grow! Cast aside your fears and learn to trust God without reservation, for He is a good and gracious God, full of kindness and mercy.

• Pray for the grace to be strong in faith, and in all things act with the love of God in mind so that you may cast your fears away and receive that grace.

Copyright 2009 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

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Note to a Worried Friend

In 07 Observations on 2011/07/15 at 12:14 PM

The past is memory; the future, imagination.  We have only the present, and it is only in the present that we receive the grace we need to cope.  We do not receive grace to cope with our imaginary worries for the future.  If and when what we worry about comes to pass, then it will be in that present that we will be given the graces we need.

We can only offer God the present, today.  And, we need to sanctify each day, heeding the many inspirations and graces which He sends us throughout the day.  We need to concentrate on what we are doing.  Sanctity results by being faithful in details, in everyday things, in actions which might seem irrelevant were they not vivified by grace.

Hope is a virtue that is essential to our sanity.  We need it most when we are in difficult situations or have serious problems.  It helps us to focus on eternal values so as not to become disoriented.  St. John Chrysostom always gave practical as well as spiritual advice: ” One needs not only to be able to hold out but to have a stable, solid confidence, which is firmly grounded on faith, so as never to be overcome by difficulties.” (Homily on Hebrews 5)

God will always be there at the right time (although it may be in secret and mysterious ways).  Do not abandon Him: He does not abandon you.  Mother Teresa used to say:  “God speaks to us in the silence of our hearts.”  So, listen with the ears of your heart.

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“Do whatever He tells you”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/30 at 9:06 AM
In the middle of the rejoicing at the feast in Cana, only Mary notices that they are short of wine. A soul will notice even the smallest details of service if, like her, it is alive with a passion for helping its neighbour, for God. (Furrow, 631)

Our Lady was a guest at one of those noisy country weddings attended by people from many different villages. Mary was the only one who noticed the wine was running out. Don’t these scenes from Christ’s life seem familiar to us? The greatness of God lives at the level of ordinary things. It is natural for a woman, a homemaker, to notice an oversight, to look after the little things that make life pleasant. And this is how Mary acted.

—Do whatever he tells you.

Implete hydrias (John 2:7), fill the jars. And the miracle takes place. Everything is so simple and ordinary. The servants carry out their job. The water is easy to find. And this is the first manifestation of our Lord’s divinity. What is commonplace becomes something extraordinary, something supernatural, when we have the good will to heed what God is asking of us.

Lord, I want to abandon all my concerns into your generous hands. Our Mother—your Mother—will by now have said to you, as at Cana: “They have no wine!…”

If our faith is weak, we should turn to Mary. Because of the miracle at the marriage feast at Cana, which Christ performed at his Mother’s request, his disciples learned to believe in him (John 2:11). Our Mother is always interceding with her Son so that he may attend to our needs and show himself to us, so that we can cry out, “You are the Son of God.”

—Grant me, dear Jesus, the faith I truly desire. My Mother, sweet Lady, Mary most holy, make me really believe! (Holy Rosary, Second Luminous Mystery)

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Problems and Difficulties

In 07 Observations on 2011/05/11 at 11:38 AM

“In our own lives, perhaps there will be no shortage of tempests and threatening skies, of interior darkness, of misunderstandings – and, with more or less regular frequency, situations in which we should correct our course because we have gone astray.  Then we should strive to see Our Lord, who always comes in the storm of suffering.  Let us learn to accept the setbacks with faith, as blessing from heaven to purify us and draw us closer to God.  He said: ‘It is I; do not be afraid.”

Fernandez, Francis IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD, Vol.II: 60.3

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Pray Always?

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2011/04/12 at 5:45 PM

How on earth can I follow that Scriptural advice?  There are a series of quotations in the Gospels that can serve to raise one’s heart in adoration, contrition, petition or thanksgiving any time.

“Lord, if You will, make me clean.”  Matt. 8:2.

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”  Luke: 18: 38.

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Luke 23:42

“God, be merciful to me, as sinner.”  Luke 18: 13.

“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” John 21:17.

“I believe, help my unbelief.”  Mark 9:23.

“My Lord and my God.”  John 20:28.