Thursday, March 20, 2014

Day 16: Trust in the Lord

The very first psalm tells us how blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord.  How very blessed indeed.  Yesterday, I was privileged to meet our new auxiliary bishop, Peter Baldacchino right before he was ordained a bishop.  I walked into his vesting room with another priest and found that the soon to be bishop was a little nervous (who wouldn't be?) yet very much at peace.  You could see that in his face during the entire ordination with his big, joyful smile.  All deacons, priests, and bishops commend themselves entirely to God during their ordination when they prostrate themselves before the altar during the Litany of Saints in a complete act of total trust in the Lord.  We recognize our own unworthiness and look to the Lord with complete confidence that he will guide us in our mission to proclaim the gospel and to offer his people the gifts of his love, mercy, and peace.

So many times because of our own pride we trust too much in ourselves and our ability to get out of problems.  We must learn to trust more in our God like Jesus did.  Jesus always turned to his Father.  This morning Pope Francis talked about this trust in the Father for those who have lost their way and forgotten that they are children of God: 
"To the end, to the end, to the end there is always a possibility. And this man, when he realized that he had lost his name, he had lost everything, everything, looks up and says one word: ‘Father.’ And God's answer is one word: ‘Son!’ If one of us in life, having so much trust in man and in ourselves, we end up losing the name, losing this dignity, there is still a chance to say this word that is more than magic, it is more, it is strong: ‘Father.’ He always waits for us to open a door that we do not see and says to us: ‘Son.’ Let us ask the Lord for the grace that He would give to each of us the wisdom to have confidence only in Him — not in things, not in human powers; only in Him.” (Pope Francis 3/20/14)  May we learn to look to God always in our time of need even if it's to simply call out to him "Father."  Our God will always reply.  Learn to trust in Him.