KEEPING GOD'S TRUST

december 15, 2007

Faith is the first of the three theological virtues, on which rest the other two: hope and charity. If you can't trust someone, you can't hope for a promising future together with that person, and you can't give your heart to someone in love whom you suspect may abuse it. Mistrust destroys hope and love.

God asks us to trust him completely, and he makes an act of complete trust in us. What has God entrusted to us, and how can we be faithful persons -- persons full of faith -- in a time of non-commitment, mistrust and broken promises?

In Revelation 1:5, we read: "Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead." What we can do is imitate Jesus Christ. He is our supreme model of fidelity.

For the past 2000 years, the world has been driven to try to understand him. How could he bear to be alone when friends were so obviously needed? What manner of violence had he done to himself to become so complete a master of his mind and heart and passions? What had taken place between him and his Father? What had he seen in the eyes or hearts of others which gave him strength sufficient to pour out his life?

How did he preserve his freedom in a world gone mad in its self-imposed bondage to animal desires and appetites, and its moral evasion of duty? How could he maintain hope when doubts were so many, the darkness so unrelieved, and fear so constant? How could he hang on a cross so patiently awaiting the extinction of his life, without bitterness, or curses or hatred? How could he, in the end, utter words of forgiveness?

Jesus' secret was his fidelity to the Father. He did not know certainly how the world would react to him at any time, but he always knew what he would be and what he would do, because he knew he was always going to be faithful to the Father.

He says: "If I do not perform my Father's works, put no faith in me. But if I do perform them, even though you put no faith in me, put faith in these works" (Jn 10:37-38). "I have not spoken on my own; no, the Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to speak" (Jn 12:49). "The words I speak are not spoken of myself; it is the Father who lives in me accomplishing his works" (Jn 14:10).

Fidelity to God determines the quality of all other fidelities. Every attitude that's taken and every decision that's made in the concrete circumstances of life depend on that. If we keep the first commandment, we will find it easy to keep all the others. If we love God above all things, and reject all false gods, that is, if we refuse to love anything more than God or to make anything else the be-all and end-all of life, then our lives will be well ordered and we will be faithful in all our other affairs.

In a time of change, doubt, and confusion, the world is greatly in need of the person who is faithful to the truth and light and calling received from God. What merit is there in being faithful to a cause that is not from God? What does it profit a person, asks Jesus, to gain the whole world but at the price of losing one's soul? What is more useless than doing exceedingly well that which should not be done at all?

God calls to each one of us, entrusting a task which he has not given to any other. Even if we are not sure what it is, we glorify God by trying to do what we think it is. If we fulfill our missions, the world holds together. If not, it falls apart. If we let our light shine, there is light. If not, there is darkness. There is no need for fear in saying yes to God's call.

In John 14:12-13, Jesus says to us: "I solemnly assure you, the one who has faith in me will do the works I do, and greater far than these. Why? Because I go to the Father, and whatever you ask in my name I will do, so as to glorify the Father in the Son."

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 17-Dec-2007 8:47 sitemap