How strongly do you trust in God’s plan?
It’s challenging to trust in the Lord, particularly when we are beset with difficulties. The prophet Jeremiah suffered both political and social isolation; his community persecuted him because they did not like the message he delivered on God’s behalf. But Jeremiah knew that Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, for only when we trust do we have the possibility for growth, like the tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream. God didn’t always do what Jeremiah expected, but Jeremiah nevertheless opened himself to the Lord and allowed the Lord to work through him. Secure in right relationship with God, Jeremiah is like the man who delights in the law of the Lord of Psalm 1, trusting that whatever he does, will prosper.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear in his Sermon on the Plain that to follow him involves sacrifice and pain: Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. But Jesus promises that if we have faith, if we trust in God’s plan, if we open ourselves to the challenges of continuous change to which the Lord calls us, we will be among the blessed. To do so requires us to work to see past our own limited vision, to see the Lord on the Lord’s own terms, as Paul challenges the Corinthians to do: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? Faith always requires moving past what we believe we know of God and seeking to grow until we know him fully. Whose power defines us? Ours? Or God’s power in us? Jesus calls us to allow God’s action in our lives to define us and open us to the future, defined only as God would have us be defined, open to God’s plan alone.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
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