Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C. August 8, 2004. Our Lady of Grace 7:30, 11:30, 6PM. Wisdom 18; 6-9. Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-9. Luke 12: 32-48.
We have wonderfully trusting children at Our Lady of Grace. At school Masses the kindergartners sit with the eight graders. This arrangements works. It makes both the kindergartners and the eighth graders feel important and it helps both the youngest and the oldest students in our School pay better attention at Mass by caring for one another. Once when I wasn’t presiding at Mass I sat in the back of the church to pray with the students and teachers. When the eighth graders went to communion the kindergartners were left alone in their pews. One little boy immediately climbed up on the bench and began to dance around. I sat down next to him and said, “If you don’t settle down, you will have to come and sit in the back row with me.” Without a moment’s hesitation, the little boy took my hand and said, “OK, come on, let’s go!” I was amazed at how much he trusted me. He didn’t see sitting next to me as a punishment. He trusted me and he was eager to go.
The trustful way of a child is a beautiful thing. A child who learns that life is a positive experience and that many, many people can be trusted has a great advantage in leading a productive and successful life. Yet we all know that while trust is a great value, children also need to be taught to be cautious and ask questions; there are those who take advantage of the innocence of a child. Those who would rob a child of trust through abuse or in some other way are committing a destructive act that is very difficult to repair, even with God’s grace. Without trust in our hearts life would be a walk in a darkness full of terror and without hope.
Again this week someone told me that they were not having
children because of the terrible violence in our world and their lack of hope
that things were getting better. My 92
year old mother once told me that she doesn’t remember the kind of violence we
have today when she was young. I
reminded her that she had lived through both the First and Second World
Wars. Thirty million people where killed
in World War II. If you lived in
Marriages break up a lot today. Some would say that taking a chance on another person in a life-long relationship is just too risky. Staying uncommitted or even loosely committed in a relationship without life-long marriage vows seems to be the alternative of choice for many who find trust hard in a world where people so often prove untrustworthy. Without trust in one another and trust in God who would dare to take marriage vows for life? Without trust family life tends to be an endless succession of disappointments, each of which further weakens trust.
Having a child takes great trust. No one has any guarantees about how the cute little baby we welcome with joy is going to turn out. A career, a vocation or a way of life takes great trust. None of us know the secrets and the developments that the future will bring. Retirement takes trust and so does dying. Taking the election process seriously and voting after careful consideration of the issues demands great trust that what we do does make a difference for the future direction of our land.
In the midst of a world that was violent and confusing like our own, Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” You may feel little, insignificant and overwhelmed, but “do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”
In the verses proceeding today’s gospel, Jesus tell his disciple not to trust in their possessions by building bigger barns. And, not having bigger barns to depend on, they are not to worry because God sees their need and will respond to it. In today’s gospel Jesus goes beyond telling us that it is useless to store up possessions and to worry about the future. He says, little flock, “sell your belongings and give alms (to those in need). Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven…for where your treasure is there also you heart will be.”
None of us is big enough, or wise enough or strong enough to live without faith and trust in a power beyond our own. Today the Lord of the universe says, “Trust me” and whether you understand it or not, or agree or not, things will be all right in the big plan of God for our lives and for the unfolding of the universe.
The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that we are surrounded by
a cloud of witnesses that lived their faith and trust in God. Abraham left home and journeyed to a foreign
land because he trusted God. Abraham and
Sarah begged for a child in their desperate search for the future. When they
received the child Isaac they were willing to offer him back to God in
sacrifice because they trusted that God knew what he was doing. The Hebrews left
The new image in the sanctuary is a vivid picture of the trust we are to have in God. The beloved disciple listens to the heart of Jesus while Jesus tenderly embraces him in love. Holy images help us understand the gospel. They are not decorations. They are God’s Word appealing to our eyes. Jesus says to each of us, “Fear not little flock. It has pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.” Jesus invites us to trust him.
Our lives and our needs are bigger than we are. The plan for our lives is bigger than what we can see, control or manage. The Divine Judge of our lives asks only one thing of us. Jesus tells us not to fear and to follow him in trust and faith. For trust even when we are surrounded by disappointments, confusion and darkness, we give God thanks and praise.