Trustworthy

 

Our presider at Mass gave a beautiful homily this morning on the feast day of the Holy Family. He began that we are all in dysfunctional families, even the Holy family had its challenges and the fact that they were the Holy Family did not exempt them from these struggles. In the context of the readings, in my humble opinion, he missed the opportunity to explain HOW they got through said struggles.  I saw something a little different.. Let me explain.

The second reading was from Hebrews and it states.

Brothers and sisters:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place
that he was to receive as an inheritance;
he went out, not knowing where he was to go.
By faith he received power to generate,
even though he was past the normal age
--and Sarah herself was sterile--
for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy.
So it was that there came forth from one man,
himself as good as dead,
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky
and as countless as the sands on the seashore.

By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, 
and he who had received the promises was ready to offer
his only son,
of whom it was said,
“Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.”
He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,
and he received Isaac back as a symbol.

Did you notice a theme? I know I did!

BY FAITH! That is how we all do it, by thinking, by knowing that the one who made the promise was TRUSTWORTHY, as stated by St. Paul to the Hebrews.

You have to ask yourself if you trust in the God of these promises. If the Old Testament wasn’t enough of an example with time and time again the God of Abraham rescuing his beloved, in the New Testament he brings himself to earth in Jesus. Christianity is the only religion where our God comes to us! To prove he was a man of his word.

So when you are knee deep in dysfunction, our homilist asks us to pray with a few questions. Is this a worldly issue that I am bound up in? And how am I contributing to the problem?

He recommends embracing poverty, both mind body and spirit. Good reflections to be certain.

But that leads us right back to trust. If we do let go of these things, can we be certain of our future? Can we trust in God? It all comes down to trust. Knowing that when we do surrender our loving God is with us, guiding us, providing for us, always with us.  Emmanuel.