Search Web Site
Featured Photos
Click photos to enlarge
Click here for information on the Knights of Columbus Charity Golf Tournament held on Saturday, June 15, 2024.
In our Senior High religious education classes we watched a video from the library called A Quick Journey Through the Bible by Jeff Cavins. In it he says that the core message, the heart of what God is saying over and over again in the bible is simply DO YOU TRUST ME?
Do you trust me - think about that. That is what God asks the Israelites and ultimately us. Right in the beginning of the Old Testament God asks Abram to pick up everything and leave his homeland for some strange unknown promised land. Do you trust me? God asks Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, onto a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice to God. Do you trust me? The Israelites flee from Egypt only to be stopped by the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army behind them. Do you trust me? In our first reading we have a widow who is down to her last meal. She has no money, no food left, no hope. The prophet Elijah comes along and not only asks her to bring him some water but to use her last bit of flour and oil to make bread for him. In return he says that God has promised that she and her son will not run out of food. Do you trust me? Then to the Gospel. Again we have a widow who freely puts her last two coins into the collection. Christ says she has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. What will she eat tomorrow, how will she survive penniless? Do you trust me?
What happens when we don’t trust, what is the opposite of trust? It is not unbelief or doubt in the existence of God. It is more often anxiety and worry. When we don’t trust we are focused on ourselves, we have to look out for number one. We can’t give anything away, whether it is a loaf of bread or two small coins. We have to save, keep everything, build up as much as we possibly can - for ourselves! The problem is no matter how much we accumulate, it will never be enough. We spend our life anxious, worrying.
Yet Jesus keeps telling us not to worry. Don’t worry about what we will eat, about what we will wear, about tomorrow and the problems it will bring. He tells us not to worry, not because there are no real threats to us and our existence, but because there is a God in charge of the universe and nothing happens, no sparrow falls from the sky or hair from a human head, that is outside the scope and care of God.
We are in good hands, all the time. A gracious, all-powerful, loving God is solidly in charge and nothing will happen in the world and nothing will happen to us that this Lord is indifferent to. Our faith, at its core, invites trust, and not just abstract trust, a belief that good is stronger than evil. No, we need a very concrete trust, a trust that God has not forgotten about us and our problems and that, despite whatever indications there are to the contrary, God is still in charge and is very concerned with our life and its troubles. Think about Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. With all the powers of death and darkness closing in on him, just when it seems that God has abandoned him and the whole world, he begins his prayer with Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. What Jesus is saying is that, despite indications to the contrary, despite the fact that it looks like God is asleep at the switch, He is still in charge, is still fully in power and worthy of trust.
That is easier to say than to believe sometimes. Our problem is that we feel that God is inadequate because often we are; that God falls asleep at the switch because occasionally we do; and that God forgets about us and our problems because we have a habit of letting certain people and things slip off of our radar screens. And so, we are afraid that God also sometimes forgets and does not notice us. That is why we get anxious and worry.
The real meaning of trust is to release your own control of things. When the chips are down, let go and let God. No matter what. Both of the widows in our readings understood that.
Do you trust me?
Do you trust me - think about that. That is what God asks the Israelites and ultimately us. Right in the beginning of the Old Testament God asks Abram to pick up everything and leave his homeland for some strange unknown promised land. Do you trust me? God asks Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, onto a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice to God. Do you trust me? The Israelites flee from Egypt only to be stopped by the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army behind them. Do you trust me? In our first reading we have a widow who is down to her last meal. She has no money, no food left, no hope. The prophet Elijah comes along and not only asks her to bring him some water but to use her last bit of flour and oil to make bread for him. In return he says that God has promised that she and her son will not run out of food. Do you trust me? Then to the Gospel. Again we have a widow who freely puts her last two coins into the collection. Christ says she has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. What will she eat tomorrow, how will she survive penniless? Do you trust me?
What happens when we don’t trust, what is the opposite of trust? It is not unbelief or doubt in the existence of God. It is more often anxiety and worry. When we don’t trust we are focused on ourselves, we have to look out for number one. We can’t give anything away, whether it is a loaf of bread or two small coins. We have to save, keep everything, build up as much as we possibly can - for ourselves! The problem is no matter how much we accumulate, it will never be enough. We spend our life anxious, worrying.
Yet Jesus keeps telling us not to worry. Don’t worry about what we will eat, about what we will wear, about tomorrow and the problems it will bring. He tells us not to worry, not because there are no real threats to us and our existence, but because there is a God in charge of the universe and nothing happens, no sparrow falls from the sky or hair from a human head, that is outside the scope and care of God.
We are in good hands, all the time. A gracious, all-powerful, loving God is solidly in charge and nothing will happen in the world and nothing will happen to us that this Lord is indifferent to. Our faith, at its core, invites trust, and not just abstract trust, a belief that good is stronger than evil. No, we need a very concrete trust, a trust that God has not forgotten about us and our problems and that, despite whatever indications there are to the contrary, God is still in charge and is very concerned with our life and its troubles. Think about Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. With all the powers of death and darkness closing in on him, just when it seems that God has abandoned him and the whole world, he begins his prayer with Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. What Jesus is saying is that, despite indications to the contrary, despite the fact that it looks like God is asleep at the switch, He is still in charge, is still fully in power and worthy of trust.
That is easier to say than to believe sometimes. Our problem is that we feel that God is inadequate because often we are; that God falls asleep at the switch because occasionally we do; and that God forgets about us and our problems because we have a habit of letting certain people and things slip off of our radar screens. And so, we are afraid that God also sometimes forgets and does not notice us. That is why we get anxious and worry.
The real meaning of trust is to release your own control of things. When the chips are down, let go and let God. No matter what. Both of the widows in our readings understood that.
Do you trust me?