32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 - Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Every year on the Sunday after easter we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. You have likely seen the Divine Mercy image. It is a picture of Jesus dressed in a white garment, with rays of red and pale light emanating from his heart.

The Divine Mercy image of Jesus comes from a vision of St. Faustina, the polish nun who received a series of visions of Our Lord in the 1930s. According to her diary, Jesus instructed her to have an image painted, promising that “souls who venerate this image will not perish.”

St. Faustina initially struggled to find an artist capable of capturing her vision. Eventually, a painter named Eugene Kazimierowski from Lithuania, completed the Divine Mercy image under her guidance in 1934. She expressed disappointment initially, feeling that no earthly image could truly convey the beauty of her vision, but Jesus reassured her that great graces would plow from the image and its message of mercy.

Additionally, Jesus instructed St. Faustina to inscribe the words “Jesus, I trust in You” at the bottom of the painting. “Jesus, I trust in You” This phrase captures the central message of the Divine Mercy devotion: that, despite human frailty and sinfulness, we are invited to place our complete trust in Christ’s boundless mercy. “Jesus, I trust in you”

I bring up the Divine Mercy image and its message of trust because “trust” is a common theme in our readings this weekend.

In the first reading, we have the story of the widow of Zarephath, who is visited by the prophet Elijah. She and her son are basically starving to death when Elijah directs her to cook him some bread. This would have made her already desperate situation even worse, but Elijah asks her to trust him, “do not be afraid” he says. And due to her trust, there was a miracle, “she and her son were able to eat for a year, the jar of flour did not go empty nor the jug of oil run dry”

In the Gospel, we have another story of trust. Another widow of Jesus’ day, moved by her devotion to God, trusted that God would provide for her, and gives to the Temple collection not from her surplus wealth, but from her livelihood. The widow’s example of trust is enshrined in the holy scriptures and serves as a reminder of the sort of trust all of us are to cultivate. Trust God with our time, trust God in our generosity, trust God in our devotion to Him.

Trust. Trust is difficult for a lot of us. Not just with God but with others. Why is it so difficult to trust? Trust becomes difficult because of past betrayals. When someone we trust—a sibling, a parent, a friend breaks our trust, that betrayal leaves a lasting wound. 

Past betrayals make trust feel risky. No one likes to trust someone only to be made a fool. No one likes to trust someone and have them swindle you or break a promise or breach a confidence. Trusting authority figures can be especially difficult. Teachers, religious leaders, bosses, these people exercise power, and untrustworthy authorities are terribly dangerous. 

But trust is important. Without trust, or giving people the opportunity to earn our trust, we cannot form healthy bonds, healthy friendships, healthy romantic relationships. One of the reasons the marriage rate among young people is significantly low is due to difficulties in trust.

But trust is so important for healthy relationships. Trust allows us to be ourselves around others, to share our true selves, to seek comfort in the company of safety. Trust is also an important principle economically, socially, politically, in the workplace, and in families. Growing in maturity is about becoming more trustworthy. And being trustworthy makes us better neighbors, better workers, better spouses. 

Now of course, trust has its limits. Scripture says, “put not your trust in princes.” A healthy mistrust of our government representatives helps us to keep our government accountable. We aren’t called to put absolute blind trust in any human or any human institution.

But Jesus Christ is not merely human, and the Church is not a merely human institution. Jesus is God, and the Magisterium—the teaching authority of the Church—authoritatively teaches in His name.

We can and should put our absolute trust in Jesus Christ—in God. For God always wills and does what is best for us. In God there is no deception, no pettiness, no betrayal, no lack of knowledge that causes him to make mistakes, no fickleness, or self-doubt. In God, there is only perfect and unconditional love that wills and does the absolute best for every human being ever made. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and resurrection is the ultimate proof of God’s trustworthiness. Jesus demonstrated His absolute commitment to humanity’s salvation, when he embraced the suffering of the Cross—taking upon himself the sins of the world. We trust in his promises because he bore our sufferings and rose victorious. Had he not rose, our faith would be in vain. But he did, as he said he would.

And so we put our trust in God because it is the most logical thing we could possibly do. And if we cannot trust God, we will never have a healthy trust of anybody. Because if you can’t trust the most benevolent being in existence, you won’t be able have healthy trust in less benevolent beings, like your fellow man. 

But when we have trust, and again, our scripture readings point to this, miracles occur. When we trust God, the hungry our fed, charity flows, the gospel is spread, the mustard seed grows to encompass the world. 

For those of us with a weakened ability to trust, trusting God is an ongoing process that requires real effort. Growing to trust God—and healing our mistrust of God—requires regular prayer from the depths of our wounded hearts, meditation on God’s promises and reflection on the words of sacred scripture. It means seeking to trust God as Jesus trusts His Father, and the Saints trust Jesus.  Trust grows when we let go of the need to control everything and allow God to work in His timing and way—surrendering every moment to God “not my will, but thy will be done” in my life, in all things, in the life of my family, my nation, and my Church, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

2nd Week of Lent 2018 - Friday - Wimpy Lenten Penances

I heard a bishop say that at this point in this season of Lent, the season of fasting and self-sacrifice, that our fasting and self-sacrifice should begin to hurt. If it’s not beginning to hurt, then you’ve embraced too wimpy of a fast, like someone who adopts an exercise program which consists of walking up the stairs to go to bed...wow, big sacrifice there.

Seeking to be faithful to our Lenten observances is important. Though they are not meant to become a source of sinful pride… “look what I can do all by myself”. Rather, our Lenten penances are meant to create in us a humble spirit, in which we recognize our dependence upon God. Perhaps, we’ve failed to keep our Lenten commitments because we have tried to do it on our own.

The spiritual exercises, the Lenten observances, help us to grow from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. The pain and suffering in our life, whether involuntary or voluntary, like in the case of the Lenten Penance, can both be understood as gifts from God, opportunities to trust in God, to grow in dependency upon His grace, to grow in humble obedience to the Divine Will.

In a sense, the Pharisees are condemned because of their unwillingness to suffer: their fasts were done for show, their prayer was done to garner attention, their almsgiving was done without self-sacrifice or warmth. They were unwilling to undergo the discomfort of conversion, the pain of metanoia. They demanded faith on their terms, they wanted God to fit into their mold, and therefore, were not only unable to identify God-in-the-flesh when he appeared preaching the Gospel, but they violently rejected Him, like the wicked tenants in the parable.

Joseph’s brothers too, were unwilling to be challenged by the fact that Joseph had a very special vocation, and so they violently reject him, selling him into slavery, because he made them uncomfortable.

Our Lenten fasting, our prayerful meditation on the Word of God, the passion of Christ, our encounters with the needy throughout Lent, should make us uncomfortable; they should disrupt our complacency and our sense of self-sufficiency.

And when we encounter that moment of hunger, that insight into my personal sinfulness, we should not turn away from it,  running back into our creature comforts and worldly distractions. Rather we should enter into the suffering with Jesus as our guide, praying “Jesus, I Trust in You.” When we allow Christ to lead us through suffering, to spiritual maturity, we will become, as he says in the Gospel today, people who bear fruit for the kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.