32nd Sunday of the Year 2013

 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 today are very topical and timely because we hear so much about the family at this time; and with the government trying to help -- so they say -- the family, there is a danger that some people may be led to think that the secular power has also some moral authority over essential aspects of Christian marriage.  

We who are Catholics, however, whilst we are grateful for any real help given to support and strengthen the institution of Christian marriage, do not admit that governmental authority can in any way determine its nature as established by  God, or change the rules whereby the sacramental grace of Christian matrimony leads both to the sanctification and personal fulfilment of the spouses and the human and spiritual good of their children, whilst contributing in a unique measure towards the stability and growth of society as a whole.

The last 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.

God is love, absolute and eternal, loving all that He has made; supremely, however, loving mankind created uniquely in His own image and likeness, and therefore created, above all, to love: God Himself supremely, and our neighbour as ourselves.

This love which God blesses is intended to help mankind:

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

Man and woman were created for each another, and Jesus shows that marriage signifies a fulfilling and unbreakable union of man and woman by recalling that the plan of the Creator had been in the beginning:

            that they (be) no longer two, but one flesh.

However, corruption, death, and disharmony entered into the world through human sin, and now everyone has experience of that evil: stirring within our very own hearts and minds, and active all around us, being perpetrated in secret or openly displayed, for power or for pleasure, but always and above all, for SELF.

And yet, the divinely willed order of creation persists in its essential integrity, even though notably disturbed.  And, to face up to, overcome, and heal those wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of God’s gift of sacramental grace, for without such help, they cannot suitably and fruitfully achieve that union of their lives for which God created them in the beginning.

All you who are thirsty, come to the water!  You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!   Come to me heedfully, listen, I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.   (Isaiah 55:1-3)

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; and in the course of that ministry, He taught unequivocally the original significance of the marital union of man and woman as willed by their Creator from the beginning: 

            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, Christian marriage is for man and woman only and exclusively, and it cannot be terminated or broken by any merely 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, trusting wholeheartedly in each other, enter together into that covenant before the Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus the Risen Lord, and in the power of the most Holy Spirit of love and truth; and that seriousness and dignity cannot be either impugned or decried by popular clamour since Our Blessed Lord Himself never tried to promote His teaching by accommodating it to the desires or expectations of people around Him:

Great crowds were traveling with Him, and He turned and addressed them, “If any one comes to Me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.  Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:25–27)

Let us now, therefore, 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: it is, indeed, one of the supreme means God has established for the preservation and sanctification of human beings, created -- as we have said -- to love; and those who live their married love-life aright here on earth 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.

However, an overly worldly and sentimental view of married love can – occasionally and most sadly -- lead the partners to expect too much from their marriage; and, consequently, demanding too much of each other, they can become unforgiving in their mutual relations.

Finally today, 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 is shown us in that reading: she did indeed live the role marriage had brought her, that of a mother!  She taught her sons, and she disciplined her sons, by the love she had for them; let me just recall for you how she disciplined, by love, her youngest son:

As the youngest brother was still alive, the king appealed to him, not with mere words, but with promises on oath, to make him rich and happy if he would abandon his ancestral customs. When the youth paid no attention to him at all, the king appealed to the mother, urging her to advise her boy to save his life.  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.”  She had scarcely finished speaking when the youth said: “What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s command. I obey the command of the law given to our forefathers through Moses.  At that, the king became enraged and treated him even worse than the others, since he bitterly resented the boy’s contempt. Thus he too died undefiled, putting all his trust in the Lord. The mother was last to die, after her sons. (2 Maccabees 7:24ss.)

Learning from that sublime example, you who are mothers should recognize that you have, from God, a most special 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 confidence and prayer: do not let your children do what they want but guide them, discipline them, with love; and, realizing that your children are gifts from God, bring them up as children of God who have been entrusted to you.  Do not let them, supposedly, guide themselves; do not leave them to turn to and follow the example of their most vocal peers who know nothing of the possible restraints of faith or morals, or of those most decisive companions and leaders who have no awareness of any qualms of conscience.  Parents and children are meant to thank God eternally for each other; however, above all perhaps, mother and child should be eternally grateful for those early years of infancy and childhood when they are so uniquely close and instinctively responsive to each other.   Mothers, don’t disappoint the goodness of God Who  gave you your child; don’t fail the child so sensitive to your influence and subject to -- needy of -- your supporting love; do not lose the glory which can unite you with Mary, the most beautiful mother of us all.

What have we got here today?  A priest, one who is celibate, talking about marriage?  Yes, indeed!!  Note, however, that I do not speak about, or on the basis of, sexual experience; but only about the Catholic proclamation of God’s creative and redeeming truth, the ultimate right understanding of, and supremely solid basis for, all human living and loving.  Of this, may I add, I have been made humanly appreciative, thanks to my personal indebtedness to a wonderful mother.

31st Sunday Year C 2013

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 towards 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 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 too far gone, no one is excluded; and so no one should give up or despair.  On the other hand, absolutely 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: a hated Samaritan who was truly grateful and responsive to God in Jesus; a despised publican who could pray more humbly than a publicly respected Pharisee; and now Zacchaeus, gladly doing what the rich young man -- who thought he had been seeking eternal life from his youth -- sorrowfully could not do, namely, give up his money.   Absolutely no one can ever be sure of salvation; none, not even one apparently last or least, is out of Jesus’ saving reach; all of us have to seek for ever greater proximity to 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 purposefully along He was being followed by a crowd of people hoping to see a miracle or something notable, not particularly wanting to hear Jesus' teaching.  

Zaccheus, (however) who was small in stature, had climbed up into a sycamore tree to see (Jesus) (as He passed) that way.

This man, Zaccheus, was a prominent citizen: no ordinary tax collector, but rather 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 struggles to glimpse Jesus through the crowd, and subsequently, running ahead of the crowd in order to clamber up a tree so as to be able to see Him clearly.

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 Zachaeus:

‘Zaccheus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’   So he made haste and came down and received Him joyfully. 

Can't you see the picture of a true disciple, the model for a true Christian, being traced before our eyes?   Zacchaeus, striving, hurrying 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 Zachaeus:

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:

Zaccheus, make haste, 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"; 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 one in that of St. John (10:16), where Jesus uses the phrase, "I must":

At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them.  But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.”  And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. 

At that time some Pharisees came to him and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”  He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.  Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.’ (Luke 4:42-5:1)   (Luke 13:31-33)

I have other sheep who do not belong to this fold.  These also I must lead.

 

It was pre-ordained 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 pre-ordained 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 pre-ordained that His work had to be completed in Jerusalem where He would be nailed on the Cross bearing an inscription -- written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek – that would proclaim Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah to and for the whole world.

Now, how could Jesus' staying at the house of Zacchaeus be of such importance that it too could be said to be pre-ordained?

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:

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.'  (Luke. 11:24)

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—Moses said -- 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 Mother Church, but also, and supremely, abide within her children.

This meeting of Jesus with Zacchaeus is so essential because Zacchaeus is being shown as the figure of the disciple of Jesus, and 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: 

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. (Matthew 6:6)

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 his becoming a disciple: he was a lapsed Jew, spiritually lost 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:

Zaccheus, make haste, 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 approved deeds; merely statistical fulfilment of our obligations with regard to Mass attendance and reception of the Sacraments are 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 – even though well-nigh imperceptibly – along the way of Jesus throughout our lives: appreciating His truth more deeply, loving His Person -- yes, and His Church -- ever more warmly and sincerely; and, with unwearying patience and humility, listening to hear 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 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 satisfyingly 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 of Year C

30th. Sunday Year (C)

(Sirach 35:12-14, 16-19; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14)

Human pride -- a somewhat ludicrous overflow from the primordial hubris of Satan -- was at the root of the sin of Adam and Eve.  I say a somewhat ludicrous imitation or version of that original catastrophe, because, following its lead, Adam and Eve:

           Started to build and could not finish the task!

With an overweening self-esteem and outrageous desire for self-exaltation, they gave credence to the supreme Liar, by trying to grasp for themselves likeness to God, at the instigation of his promise to Eve, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.

Those were indeed devilish words for they evoked in Eve what she could not personally cope with; therefore she spoke with Adam who, like his wife, also found himself unable to appreciate what was happening to them both: they found themselves desiring what they could not believe God would ever give them and mistrusting His will to understand them in their temptation and trial.  The beauty of God attracted them but they could not conceive the measure of His goodness, because of the disorder they were already experiencing in their hearts after having listened to Satan’s proposal so very alien to their native being (they knew it, they had sensed it!) and yet so attractive to their pride.   And so, yielding to that fatal attraction, they allowed themselves to be seduced by Satan, who thus become their chosen lord and master.  

Therefore, the wisdom and majesty of God would once again have to confront fallen Lucifer, hiding now behind a hostage-taken mankind!

And God would also need to find and rescue mankind anew by showing His wondrous beauty and infinite goodness in human form this time: Son of God become Son of Man -- an Infant born of a virgin – where divine Goodness is most attractive to men.  And there it was too that He would defeat and destroy Satan, through the virtue of humility and the practice of obedience, where His divine Power would be made unrecognizable for Satan’s hubris.

We can say, therefore, that lack of trust in God is ultimately a manifestation of inordinate ego-centrism: either that which is directed outwards in aggressive self-assertion and which we generally call human pride, or that which is turned inwards in perpetual solicitude for, and anxiety about, self.  It  highlights a fault-line in human nature as we have received it 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 apparently poor and worthless – are subject to it and can be tempted and even led astray by it to such a degree of pride and self-love which would make them either intolerably superior and disdainful with regard to others, or else cripplingly anxious for themselves, fearful and hesitant in all things: thus alienating them from God and frustrating harmony with their fellow humans.

Our heavenly Father is infinite in holiness, power and goodness, and He wants to give us a share in His own eternal life, joy, and glory.  To achieve that He has willed to give His own Son to us, for us, the Son through Whom He also endows us with His Holy Spirit to work within and with us, so that we might indeed come to gradually experience and appreciate a little something of the glorious  destiny He has prepared for us.   Before such sublime wisdom -- shot through with divine goodness and compassion -- human self-love is clearly shown in the horror of its sinfulness: for our arrogant pride will not readily admit or humbly accept God as supreme Lord, whilst our anxiety and fearfulness cannot believe in, and will not trust, His infinite goodness as our loving Father.

Let us now see how the Pharisee prayed 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 he addresses God first and then puts Him aside as a sort of bystander, whilst he concentrates his whole attention on himself and on his feelings for others, especially for the tax collector nearby.  He is not praying to God so much as proudly detailing his own personal performance and public awareness and appreciation.  In fact he is not praying to God personally at all, he is speaking to, addressing, Him as an important Pharisee; and the few words he directs to Him are merely rhetorical and conventional, the ‘politically correct’ language of a man of God such as he believes himself to be; and after having fulfilled his religious obligation with those few words ‘God I thank you’, he becomes as all men are, though, indeed, far prouder than most, especially with regard to the humble tax-collector nearby.

Our Pharisee is not even truly thanking God for enabling and guiding him to ‘fast twice a week’ and ‘give tithes of all he possesses’, for that would, indeed, have led him to understand somewhat better, and perhaps even feel a measure of compassion for, the tax-collector and all ‘such people’.   As it was, his words to God were nothing more than ritualistic assertion of his professional commitment and success; whereas his personal commitment is shown most clearly in his vehemence against society as a whole, and against the tax-collector individually who happened to be praying so disgustingly close to him in the Temple of God!

Notice how Jesus describes such prayer when He says:

          The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.

On the other hand, however, Jesus contrasts the tax-collector’s prayer with that of the Pharisee by not only mentioning, but even gently emphasizing, his humility before God:

The tax-collector would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed…

before finally, and most approvingly, revealing  his words  of self-accusation:

          God, be merciful to me a sinner!

There God is supremely important, being recognized as all-holy and most merciful; as for the tax-collector himself, he is just a sinner, humbly acknowledging the fact.  Only two persons are pictured there and the prayer is a truly personal bond of union between them.

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 (known Who I am -- the all-holy God – and what I am -- infinitely merciful).

That was lovingly confirmed by Jesus, Who alone knew His Father in the true splendour of His glory and fullness of His goodness, when He 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 notional appreciation of God, Jesus could add:

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 object that establishes the right direction: if one were to walk looking at one’s feet, it would be impossible to arrive at the desired destination.  So too in our spiritual life, we need always to have our mind and heart, our intention and our desire, fixed on Jesus in the Church.  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 allow themselves to be convinced by such an argument and feel encouraged to continue either worrying about themselves or else congratulating themselves for their imagined prudence.  However, the great falsehood hidden in such behaviour is, of course, that it is not we who are going heavenward of ourselves, but rather it is God Who is calling us and seeking to guide us: we attain the destination He plans for us only if we trust His goodness and follow His guidance.  As St. Paul said in our second reading:

The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for 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 (2 Cor. 11:24s.):

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.   

How could he endure such punishments and survive such sufferings?  And where did he find the courage and strength to continue his witnessing to Christ?  Listen to him again:

By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (1 Corinthians 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 a much happier and more fulfilling experience for us here on earth to delight in God, and to be able and willing to trust and thank Him at all times and under all circumstances.  No one is happier than one who is grateful, none stronger than he who trusts in God.

Trust in God is absolutely essential, being the very hallmark of true love.  Trust in God is not, indeed, an integral part of our human nature, it is a gift from God; but like the talents in Jesus’ parable, it is a gift entrusted to us that we can and should develop, an endowment we are exhorted to use, work with, and profit from.  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 support such prayers by resolute endeavours to turn aside from our over-elaborate selves more promptly, through simple and ever more whole-hearted commitment to Him and His purposes; loving Him and doing His will, after the example of Jesus.

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 the goodness of God to ourselves, we can all the more sincerely sympathize with others in their faults and failings, as we come to recognize ever more clearly where we ourselves would be, were it not for God’s bountiful blessings filling up our emptiness and satisfying our needs.

Dear friends in Christ, unshakeable trust in, and heart-felt gratitude to, God the Father -- for the love and commitment embodied in Jesus crucified and gloriously Risen, and abiding ever with us in the grace and power of His Spirit in the Church – such love and trust, I say, bring us and offer all believers, a fulfilment and peace beyond anything else this side of heaven.   Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD!