32nd Sunday Tear C 2019

 32^nd Sunday of Year (C)
(2^nd Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; 2^nd.Thessalonians 2:16 – 3:5; Luke 20:27-38)

Our readings this Sunday are very topical and timely because we hear much about ‘family’ these days, not so much as a Christian institution consisting originally of father, mother, and their rightly born or adopted children, but about 'family-type' relationships concerning one parent or two, capable of progeny or not, and one child, or several of possibly differing origins And with the secular government trying to loudly promote itself and help, so they say, children of whatever parentage, there is a danger that people may begin to think that parentage of itself is a merely natural event and state of life, and that the secular authority can rightly legislate about all such ‘family’ matters.

We who are Christians and Catholics, however, whilst we are grateful for any real help given to strengthen the institution of married life, confess and profess that marriage is a God-gifted institution, established by Him for a spiritual and heavenly purpose bringing personal and social benefits essential for human progress in true peace and right prosperity: God’s purpose for marriage calls for life-long, mutual and exclusive love, leading to personal -- not merely sexual -- fulfilment for the spouses, and stability, confidence, and growth for the family and indeed society as a whole; while ultimately preparing for the eternal happiness and heavenly blessedness of all who dedicated their married lives to Christ, and tried to live them in the power and promise of His Spirit.

The Second Vatican Council teaches us that God Himself is the author of marriage when it declares:  The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by Him with its own proper laws.

Our Faith also tells us that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God Whose Love is the ultimate, absolute, and unfailing power which finds mankind good, very good, in all its powers and possibilities as the intention of His Creator’s thought;  and this divine love is intended to be recognized and embraced by mankind, thus enabling them, in turn, to bear fruit and find fulfilment in the work of presiding over creation:

            Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.

Man and woman themselves were originally created for one another, they are divinely complementary, and Jesus showed that Christian marriage -- requiring a sacred-and-lovingly-unbreakable union of husband and wife -- eminently manifests this divine intention, when He authoritatively recalled that in the beginning the Creator’s plan had been:

            That they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Sin however, entered into the world and now, especially in our modern times of Western betrayal, everyone experiences evil all around, openly portrayed and promoted by the media, and also from within his or her own life-experience.  And yet, the order of creation persists, even though men and women now know life as seriously disturbed and disturbing.  To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need anew and so very urgently the help of grace that God in His infinite mercy will never refuse them.  However, it is a grace originally won and supremely exemplified by Jesus Christ Who was willing to suffer Personally in order that His love might triumph in our sinful world, and without a like willingness to embrace suffering that His love might triumph in us and through us in our experience of life and living-together, men and women cannot achieve that inspiring union of their lives for which God created them in the beginning.

Jesus had a great respect for the institution of marriage as we see from the fact that, on the threshold of His public ministry He performed His first miracle – at His mother’s request – during a wedding feast.  In the course of that ministry, Jesus taught unequivocally the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning: the matrimonial union is indissoluble: God Himself has determined it:

            What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

No matter what the trendy press may print, no matter what public figures may do, no matter how much off-course human rights activists may agitate against it, marriage is a Christian institution for man and woman only and exclusively, and it cannot be terminated or broken by any civil authority. 

From these two principles we should begin to see something of the seriousness of marriage and the dignity both of the marriage bond itself and of the man and woman who together enter into that bond.

Let us now, in the light of Jesus’ teaching in the Church, have a short glance at today’s readings.  Let us begin with the Gospel reading.  You can see how the stiff-necked people whose hearts were hard, and who had forced Moses to wrongly allow them to divorce, came to regard matrimony; for the attitude of the Sadducees with their story of the seven brothers who died and the one wife who survived them all, shows neither reverence for what is holy, nor awareness of what is spiritual.  For them marriage was carnal and functional, nothing more.

However, Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees gives us guidance with regard to another and more modern error.  Marriage is not an end in itself nor is it eternal.  Marriage is, however, a pre-eminent means God has established and uses for the sanctification of people; and those who live their married life aright are thereby helped to become worthy, as Jesus said: of a place in the other world as children of the resurrection and sons of God.

But, an overly sentimental and predominantly emotional view of married love can very easily lead the partners to expect too much from it, and demand too much from each other, thus they can, quite tragically, become unforgiving in their attitude to each other.

Finally, let us have a short look at the first reading, for here is an example and a teaching which is certainly much needed today.   What a wonderful woman was shown us in that reading: she did indeed live the role marriage had brought her, that of a mother.  She taught her sons, she disciplined her sons, by the very love she had for them.  Let me just recall for you how she disciplined, by love, her youngest son:

In derision of the cruel tyrant, she leaned over close to her son and said in their native language: “Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you to your present age. I beg you, child, to look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know that God did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the human race came into existence.   Do not be afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them.”  

You who are mothers should recognize that YOU have, from God, the key to your children’s hearts, and that you and your husband have also God-given authority over and for your children.  Use those gifts with humility, prayer, and confidence.  Do not let your children do whatever they may want, but guide them, comfort, and discipline them, with love; realize that your children are gifts to you from God and bring them up as children of His whom He has entrusted to you; do not leave them to guide themselves, or follow the example of those who have neither faith nor morals.

Parent and child are meant to thank God eternally for each other: mothers, you teach your children,  to respect their father; fathers, teach your children to love their mother.  Parents both, don’t fail in your responsibility before God, because you are meant to be the first and surest teachers and exemplars about God for your children ... don’t lose that heavenly glory which will, most surely, be yours by loving and respecting each other, and together, serving, calmly loving and trusting God, in all the joys and vicissitudes of life.

May I close on a note of surprise and sorrow now seeing how little parents, religious parents, parents following the teachings of Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus, do not witness together – along with other religious people -- for the common well-being of their children against state incursions on their teaching.  As a Catholic, I can say that our Bishops are meant to guide and lead us in the ways of Jesus, but parents can also act of themselves if need be, and the question of the Christian well-being of our children is most certainly of human as well as religious concern.  All believers in the sovereignty of God in our lives should be able co-operate together when necessary for that sovereignty in the formation of their children’s lives.

31st Sunday Year C 2019

31^st. Sunday Year (C)
(Wisdom 11:22 – 12:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11 – 2:2; Luke 19:1-10)

St. Luke has been picking out for us incidents from Jesus' journey to Jerusalem where He was to be crucified.  He has told us of the ten lepers cleansed by Jesus; of the Pharisee and the Publican, praying side by side in the Temple; of the Rich Young Man who wanted to be perfect; and now he tells us of Zacchaeus endeavouring to catch a glimpse of Jesus passing through Jericho.

Notice that there is something unexpected, from the Jewish point of view, in all of these accounts: first of all, of the ten lepers healed, only one -- a hated Samaritan -- returned to Jesus, giving thanks to God; the prayer of the despised publican in the Temple was more acceptable to God than that of the publicly esteemed and respected Pharisee. St. Luke obviously wants to insist that no one is so far fallen that Jesus cannot raise them: why, he even ends his gospel on the same note, being the only evangelist to tell us of the good thief who, having asked Jesus on the Cross to remember him in His Kingdom, received that unique promise: ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise.’

No one is excluded, none is too far gone, and so no one should give up or despair.  On the other hand, no one can presume anything.  The nine Jewish lepers, the Pharisee praying in the Temple, the Rich Young Ruler whom Jesus loved, all of these compared badly with others who might have been considered non-starters  Absolutely no one can ever be sure of salvation; none, not even the last or the least, is out of Jesus’ saving reach; all of us have to seek for ever greater proximity to, closeness with, Jesus throughout the whole of our life.    With that in mind let us now take a closer look at our Gospel reading.

Jesus was not intending to stop, let alone stay, in Jericho; as He walked along purposefully, He was being followed by a crowd of people hoping to see a miracle or something notable, not particularly wanting to hear Jesus' teaching. 

Zacchaeus, who was small in stature, had climbed up into a sycamore tree to see (Jesus) Who was about to pass that way.

This man, Zacchaeus, was a prominent citizen: no ordinary tax collector, He was a Tax Commissioner with much responsibility and authority in what was an important centre for the Romans, since Jericho was a frontier city through which passed vital roads much used by camel trains carrying exotic wares over desert expanses from Syria and further East on their way westwards towards Rome, and which also facilitated a large local trade in costly balsams.  This very considerable civic official, however, exposed himself to both ridicule and contempt by his vain attempts to glimpse Jesus in the crowd, and then subsequently, by hastening through the crowd to get ahead of Jesus in order to clamber up a tree so as to be able to see Him clearly passing by on the road below.

Picture the hustling, struggling, figure of Zacchaeus: he wasn't hanging around in the crowd hoping vaguely for something to happen; he was deeply interested in the Person of Jesus and was making every effort to catch a glimpse of Him. This aspect of effort and haste is reflected by Jesus' words to him:

Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.

And haste he made, tumbling down (he was no climber!), to receive Jesus most joyfully!

Can't you see the picture of a true disciple, the model for a true Christian, being traced before our eyes?   Zacchaeus hurrying, striving, to see Jesus; and then hastening again to receive Him ever so gladly into his house; and finally, in total spontaneity, giving up all that might hinder his companionship with Jesus:

Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.

Surely St. Paul words in our second reading today can be applied to Zacchaeus:

May our God count you worthy of this calling, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him.

However, to arrive at the full meaning of this Gospel passage for us today we must just look at the words Jesus chose when first addressing Zacchaeus:

            Make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." 

I want to draw your attention to those two words "I must".  Jesus "must" stay at Zacchaeus' house.  What does that mean?  Jesus does not say "I will", nor does He say "I would like to"; instead He puts it in such a way as to imply that it was not simply His choice but something pre-ordained for Him by His Father.

Listen to the other two occasions in St. Luke's Gospel, and the only other occasion in St. John's, where Jesus uses the phrase, "I must":

When it was day Jesus departed and went into a deserted place; and the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them.  But He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent."  And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.         (Luke 4:42-5:1)

Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock with one shepherd. (John 10:16)

On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You."  And He said to them, "Go tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'  Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. (Luke 13:31-33)

So, it was preordained that Jesus should preach first of all in the synagogues of Judea, because He had been sent to the lost sheep of Israel; after that had been done it was preordained that He should bring other sheep in, not of the fold of Israel, because that was required for the fullness of redemption that He had been sent to achieve.  Finally, it was preordained that His work had to be completed in Jerusalem on the Cross:

         

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”  Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. (John 19:19–22)

Now, how could Jesus' staying at the house of Zacchaeus be of such importance that it too could be said to be preordained?  To find our answer let us now look at the word "house" used by Jesus when speaking to Zacchaeus.  Obviously, it was another way of saying: "Zacchaeus, I must stay with you" because Jesus when leaving said:

            Today salvation has come to this house!

Salvation had indeed come to Zacchaeus not to the building which was his house.  In that way "house" can -- in certain circumstances -- mean, the person, his mind, heart and soul.  We find this confirmed in a parable told by Jesus' (Luke 11:24):

When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, "I will return to my house from which I came.

In the OT God dwelt among His Chosen People and His presence was shown by the pillar of cloud which hovered first of all over the tent of meeting in the desert and then filled Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.   In the New Testament times, however, God not only dwells, makes His home, among His People, He also dwells within His People, in their minds and hearts, in their souls, by His Spirit.  Now Moses had said to the Lord, when Israel was experiencing difficulties in the desert:

If Your Presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.  Is it not by Your going with us, that we … may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?" (Exodus 33:15-16)

God's presence with them was the distinguishing feature of Israel: not the literal keeping of the Law, not circumcision, not Sabbath observance, for necessary though these observances were, ultimately it was God's presence among them which distinguished Israel from the pagan nations around them.

Now, it is the same today in Mother Church, because it is God's presence -- by His Spirit -- which alone preserves, protects, guides and sanctifies Mother Church today: and that presence of God's Gift, through Jesus, of His Spirit, must not only dwell among His People, in the tabernacles of our Churches for example, but also, and supremely, that presence of God's Spirit must abide within her children, in their minds and hearts, in their souls.

This meeting of Jesus with Zacchaeus is so essential because Zacchaeus is being shown as the figure of the disciple of Jesus.  Jesus must stay at the house of Zacchaeus, because Jesus must make his home in the hearts of His faithful people.  The "house of Zacchaeus" means much more than a building, it means his heart, his soul, his mind, as we find again in these words of Jesus (Mt. 6:6):

When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

There, the mind and heart of a man at prayer, the secret depths of his soul, are pictured as an inner room of his house.

So, Jesus must stay at the house of Zacchaeus, because He must enter and abide in the soul, the mind and heart, of His true disciples.  He must do this because it is essential for His work of salvation: salvation is not to be gained by law-keeping alone, even though those laws be religious laws.  Salvation can only be gained by becoming, in Jesus and by the Spirit, a true child of God: worshipping the Father, knowing, loving and trusting Him, with one’s whole mind, heart, soul, and strength.   Zacchaeus was personally chosen to show the power of Jesus and of God's grace, because Zacchaeus had practically everything against him becoming a disciple: he was a lapsed Jew, apparently lost spiritually, and absorbed in a world where he was powerful, influential, and very rich.  Everyone would have said that he was completely chained by worldly desires and expectations.  Jesus changed that by His call:

            Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." 

But, People of God, notice why Zacchaeus is being portrayed as a model disciple.  First of all, because Jesus' supreme power is to be seen: forming a spiritual failure, one addicted to worldly success, into a true disciple.  Secondly, because Zacchaeus, for his part, co-operated with the grace and calling of Jesus.  He first of all struggled in the crowd to see Jesus, and then left the crowd behind and made himself look ridiculous by running ahead in his fine official clothes and climbing a tree in order to glimpse Jesus passing by.  He then, to the disgust of the Jews and no doubt the amazement of his influential friends, gladly welcomed Jesus into his house and whole-heartedly gave his riches away in order to respond to Jesus.

People of God, can you see yourself in Zacchaeus searching for Jesus, striving to see Him, responding wholeheartedly to Him?  I hope that you truly can, because the great failing in Mother Church as we know her today, is that many Catholics, even some apparently devout ones, want to live in a way that Moses, even in OT times, knew to be impossible for us, and unacceptable before God.  Salvation is not a reward for politically correct words and publicly acceptable deeds; merely statistical fulfilment of our obligations with regard to Mass attendance and reception of the Sacraments is equally fruitless; only the presence of the Spirit of Jesus guiding our minds, ruling our hearts, and consecrating our lives can save us.  Jesus’ Spirit of love and of truth must be able to move and guide us constantly – though it be imperceptibly so at times – along the way of Jesus throughout our lives: appreciating His truth more deeply, loving His Person, yes, and His Church,  more warmly and sincerely, and with unwearying patience and humility listening for, and waiting to obey, His call though it come at an hour we might not expect.  Even in Mother Church we cannot be content to remain in the crowd, doing what others seem to be doing and nothing more.  Each of us is personally called to follow the example of Zacchaeus: searching continually to see Jesus more clearly, to welcome Him into our hearts more joyfully, and to be ever more willing and glad to get rid of all that would hinder us from responding to His plans for us.  It is so easy and comfortable to remain in the crowd and to rely, as did the Jews, on the old formalities: doing what we have always done, thinking as we have always thought, whilst enjoying what is going on in the world around us.  That I say is comfortable, but it is also very harmful.  Therefore, today, Mother Church invites us to hear Jesus calling us as He did Zacchaeus:

Make haste and come down, (come out of the crowd), for today I must stay at your house.

30th Sunday Year C 2019

30th. Sunday Year (C)
(Ecclesiasticus 35:12-14, 16-19; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14)

Pride,  that is, self-esteem ready to reject divinely-imposed, and therefore according to Eve’s mind, distasteful obedience, and ambition giving unjustified credence to the words of the serpent who is the Father of Lies -- was at the root of the Eve’s original sin before being compounded by that of Adam, too easily swayed by his wife’s example and persuasion.  And so, the very first lesson given by the Serpent and so gladly learnt by Eve and ineptly adopted by Adam, was to distrust God; then, under the Liar’s aegis, they tried to grasp for themselves what they could not trust God to give them: likeness to God, as the serpent had promised Eve, “you will be like gods”.

We can say therefore, that lack of trust in God is the first and most truly serious manifestation of human pride: whether it be shown outwardly in aggressive ambition and self-assertion, or by self-esteem turned inwards, burrowing down to ever-deeper levels of the human psyche and stirring up the muddy waters of solicitude and anxiety about self, about ME.  Pride is a fault-line in the human nature that we have received from Adam and Eve: men and women of all ages and all climes – be they important or non-entities, strong or weak, knowledgeable or ignorant, rich and successful or apparent failures – are susceptible to it and, should they yield themselves to its power, can be led to such a degree of self-assertion or self-love that might sour all vestiges of love for fellow-man in their life and alienate them irrevocably from the healing hand of God.

Our heavenly Father, however, is infinite in holiness, power, and goodness, and He wants to give us a share in His eternal life, beatitude, and glory.  To achieve that end the Father sent His only-begotten Son to become One of us -- living and dying with us and for us, before rising as our heavenly Saviour -- through Whom the Father also endows us with His Holy Spirit to work with and within us throughout time, so that all peoples might come to the glorious destiny He has planned for them.   Before such majestic goodness and compassion, human self-love is clearly shown in the horror of its sinfulness: for our arrogant pride will neither admit nor accept God’s supreme Lordship, whilst our anxious self-love cannot believe, and will not trust, in His infinite goodness.  

Let us now observe how the Pharisee prays to so wonderful a God and Father:

God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.

Notice that after addressing God first, he then – immediately -- turns his gaze aside from God to concentrate his whole attention on HIMSELF: he mentions others but only to compare them most unfavourably with himself.

This Pharisee, obviously, is not praying to God so much as extolling his own spiritual excellence, by reciting his own ‘officially good’ deeds and showing his spiritual discernment by expressing his disdain for those around him.  The few words he directs to God are merely ritualistic and conventional, the ‘politically correct’ language of a man of God such as he believes himself to be.  You might say that his prayer has the right ‘material’ but develops the wrong ‘themes’; it is not a prayer thanking God P/personally for guiding, gifting, and enabling him to ‘fast twice a week’ and ‘give tithes of all he possesses’, such an approach might, indeed, have led him to have a certain understanding of and sympathy for the tax-collector standing next to him along with those other nicely parcelled-up and distinguished groups of sinners. Finally, notice how Jesus so very accurately and succinctly describes this man’s prayer:

            The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.

We should notice, however, that the Pharisee’s prayer betrays knowledge of God’s will which he intends to obey: he himself is not an extortioner, not an adulterer, and he tries to be and thinks he is, ‘just’ before God.

On the other hand, when speaking of the tax-collector at prayer, Jesus mentions only his humble gestures and words of self-accusation:

            God, be merciful to me a sinner!

There, God is supremely important, and He is recognized as being merciful, Someone totally other than the suppliant now praying, who knows himself to be a sinner.  His prayer betrays no knowledge of God like that of the religious Israelite and learned Pharisee; and as for himself, a professional tax-collector for the Roman occupiers, he is – generally speaking -- just a selfish, stuck-in-the-mud, too-wealthy, sinner.  NEVERTHELESS, at this short time of prayer he is alone, before and -- unknown to himself – with God; and therefore, his prayer is a truly personal awareness, however vaguely felt and acknowledged, of his own sinfulness and God’s majestic holiness and ‘otherness’. 

Unknown to him, centuries earlier, the Psalmist (Ps. 91:14) had written words perfectly applicable to the tax-collector’s prayer:

I will set him on high, because he has known My Name (that is, because he has known Who I am -- the all-holy God – and what I am -- infinitely merciful).

That the tax collector knew – existentially -- something of the reality of God’s Name, was shown by his present faith (unusual, since he wittingly obeyed no commands of God), and his uncharacteristic humility (since he was no regular Temple or synagogue worshipper) before God; and therefore Jesus, Who alone knew His Father in the fullness of His glory and goodness, went on to say:

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

As for the Pharisee whose pride allowed him little more than a notional appreciation of God’s Name and glory, and who enjoyed comparing himself most favourably with others,  Jesus went on to say :

Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

People of God, whoever sets out for a distant destination must always keep their eyes fixed on some fixed object that establishes the right direction: looking at one’s feet, it would be impossible to arrive at the desired destination.   

So too in the spiritual life, we have always to fix our mind and heart, our intention and our desire, on Jesus.  Of course, it might be objected that he who does not look where he is putting his feet is asking for trouble; and there are some who would allow themselves to be convinced by such an argument and would feel encouraged to continue either worrying about themselves or else congratulating themselves for their imagined prudence.  The great falsehood hidden in such attitudes is, of course, that it is not we who are going heavenward of ourselves, but rather God Who is guiding us: we attain His planned destination for us only if we follow the lead He gives us.  As St. Paul said in our second reading:

The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and bring me safe to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever.  Amen!

Jesus wished to impress this upon His disciples when He warned them of pressures to come that would, if they did not take care, lead them to worry overmuch about themselves:

You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.  But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father Who speaks in you.   (Matthew 10:18-21)

We all know that the apostle Paul suffered more than any of the apostles for Jesus, and the hearing of only a few of his sufferings and trials fills us with admiration for his steadfast proclamation of the Good News:

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep.           (2 Corinthians 11:24-25)

How did he survive such punishments and sufferings and still have the courage and strength to continue his witnessing to Christ?  Listen to him:

By the grace of God I am what I am; but I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (1 Cor. 15:10)

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6)

My dear people, it is not only necessary for our eternal salvation, but it is also so much happier and so much more fulfilling for us here on earth, to keep our mind and heart centred on Him Who is calling us onward and upward,  to learn to delight in Him, to trust and thank Him at all times and in all things.  There is no one happier than one who is grateful, there is none stronger than he who trusts in God.

Trust in God is absolutely essential for a Catholic and Christian life, for there can be no true love where trust is lacking.  Trust in God is not, indeed, part of our fallen human nature, but it is a readily available gift from God, a gift we can ask for, a gift we are exhorted to work with.  We need to pray constantly for greater trust in God, for a more instinctive and childlike reliance on Him, and we should also seek to back-up such prayers by resolute endeavours to turn aside from ourselves, through personal discipline of mind and heart.  As trust grows it brings with it such a deep peace and quiet joy that one wonders how one could have been so foolish as to have relied on, or worried about, self so much before; moreover, with a deepening awareness of, and trust in, God one can more sincerely sympathize with others in their faults and failings, and also appreciate more surely and fully what reasons we have to be grateful to God for His great mercy and goodness to us in Jesus.  People of God, for any human being, such unshakeable trust and gratitude constitute a fulfilment beyond anything this side of heaven.