trust in Jesus

'Jesus, I Trust in You!'

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 6/29/06)

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington on Saturday, June 24, and at Holy Trinity Church in Gainesville on Sunday, June 25.

So often the images in our Scripture readings apply to our lives and help us find the meaning or lesson which God intends for us to learn. Such is the case in today’s liturgy. Several similar images capture our attention. In the first reading from the Book of Job, we hear: “storm” and “proud waves,” and in the Gospel reading from St. Mark’s account, we hear “violent squall” and “waves … breaking over the boat.”
These images are certainly familiar to us. After all, living life is often compared to sailing on a ship, or the Church herself is seen as a boat traveling over the sea of life with periods of tranquility and others of persecution and attack. Calm waters image peace and goodness while stormy waters signal disorder and evil.
The images in today’s Scriptures cause us to look inside us and around us. How is our individual life going? Is it often stormy, on the outside beset with difficulties within the family or at the workplace, the pervasive disrespect for human life and the widespread neglect of God’s presence within society; or on the inside, experiencing personal struggles, questions, loneliness, illness, the death of a loved one? How do we cope as we sail the sea of life?
How is the Church doing on her voyage across the sea of life? Is she not oppressed by disunity from within and attacks from the outside? Is not her message of truth and goodness often ignored or even ridiculed? How are we faring as Church?
Perhaps, like Job, we ask: “where are you, Lord? Why?” Perhaps, like the disciples in today’s Gospel account, we feel that the ship is sinking and we cry out: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Sometimes, as we experience the violent squalls in our lives, we think that Jesus is indeed asleep, and we truly become terrified.
In these troubling times, the response given is itself a question from the Master to us: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
Yes, Jesus asks us, especially when we feel so frightened by the storms of life, “Do you not yet trust in Me?” What He is telling us is that the only way to cope with the storms of life, whatever particular form they take, the only way to cope is to believe and to trust. Indeed, is this not what Jesus said to St. Faustina when He taught her — and us — to pray: “Jesus, I trust in You”?
Now, to see life through the eyes of faith and trust is not to ignore the real difficulties and trials we experience. It is, though, to view them from a different vantage point, through a particular kind of prism — the vantage point of faith and the prism of trust.
In today’s second reading, we hear St. Paul remind us that the disciples of Christ no longer look at things in a purely human way, “according to the flesh.” No, we are now in Christ a new creation; we now see life and evaluate what we experience in a new or different way, by faith and with trust.
Faith linked with trust — and they cannot be separated — enables us to look into life, not merely to look over life. Faith linked with trust — and they cannot be separated — implies a surrender, a letting go, a walking through the difficulty rather than walking around it; it implies being convinced without concrete proof that last word is victory over sin and death, because the Word made flesh, Jesus our Lord, the One to Whom we belong, has died and now lives! Faith linked with trust — they cannot be separated — implies walking, not alone, but with Jesus, Who loves us beyond our widest imagining!
In this celebration of Christ’s Dying and Rising, we experience once again His coming close to us, assuring us that He remains with us — “I am with you always even to the end of time,” and inviting our deepening response of faith and trust — “Why are you terrified? Do not be afraid! You belong to Me.”
Yes, images speak to the experiences of our lives. The storms of life will beset us, but let us turn to Jesus, clinging to Him in faith and with trust. He will remain at our side even in the storm and holding us close to His Heart, will lead us safely home. So again and again, we pray: “Jesus, I trust in You.”

Return to back issues Return to main page