God will Provide if you but Trust and Believe

Believe and Trust and God Provides
A Reflection of the Readings for October 29th, 2006
By Rev. Robert Johnnene OFA
Mission Saints Sergius and Bacchus
www.Mission_St_Sergius.org
The messages of today’s readings in both the Western Orthodox and the Roman rites have one common theme and it is, if you trust and believe in God with your whole being He will provide your needs.
We are also reminded to be on guard always against the power and temptations of the evil one.
St. paul begins his letter to the Ephesians 6: 10-20 with this very sage advice “My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
The Gospels for both rites tell the story of how having faith in God and believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God come to earth to proclaim God’s infinite and everlasting love and forgiveness and to teach us the truth path to salvation can bring miracles.
In the Gospel of John we hear the story of the nobleman, whose son was sick and on the verge of dying. He pleaded with Christ to come with him and cure the boy. Jesus told him, “Go on thy way home, your son lives”. The man did not question Christ but did as he was told and on the way home a servant met him and told him his son was cured.
In the Gospel of Mark 10: 46-52, we hear a similar story of the blind beggar Bartimaeus who hearing Christ was close called out to Christ to heal him. Jesus feeling the man’s faith said to Bartimaeus
"Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately the blind beggar received his sight and followed Jesus faithfully from that day on.
The message of these readings is a simple one and yet so many today seem to look elsewhere for help in all things.
Our human nature is so fickle that unless we witness a miracle we begin to question the truth of Christ‘s teachings. This brings me to the warning issued by St Paul in his epistle. “. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
One of the tools of the devil is to have us question the truth of Christ and the presence of Almighty God.
We need to be ever diligent in our goal of reaching eternal salvation with Christ every moment of every day. That is our road to Calvary. Because Christ was the son of God and free of all stain of sin to which we as humans are very prone, his road of Calvary which procured for us the redemption of sin, had to be extreme. Some of those who followed after him also suffered persecutions and death in the name of Christ and we celebrate them this Wednesday on the feast of All Saints. They believed and were willing to die for the sake of Christ.
We are being asked to have that same level of trust and faith in God. We have been given a much easier road to travel than Christ and the martyrs if we truly believe and put our complete trust and faith in God. Our best armor to protect us on this dangerous road of life in these times of self satisfaction and self gratification is prayer and the Eucharist.
God’s promise of salvation is for ALL His children who believe in Him and acknowledge their inadequacies and weaknesses and seek His help in living according to the teachings His beloved son Jesus Christ gave us in the Sermon On The Mount and in the Great Commandment “Love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, mind, soul and body and love your neighbor as you love yourself”
God is compassionate, merciful, forgiving and more loving than any human can ever be. He is there to answer our pleas and provide us with our needs as any good father does for His children. If we trust in him as the men in the gospel stories of today did, He will provide us with what we ask.
With God, all things are possible. Without God in our lives, we are helpless and open to all kinds of attack from the devil.
Christ himself told us “If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me.” (John 12:43-45)Let us go forth from this day on to deepen our trust and faith in God and let us turn to Him before all others seeking His guidance and strength to overcome to temptations that are constantly bombarding us in these trying times so that we will think and act in our daily lives in the same manner that Christ did, accepting each person He encountered as a brother and sister and extending to them compassion, mercy, forgiveness and love.
Let us always call to mind the words found in Matthew 7 :1-3 “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”I close with this prayer;
Almighty and merciful God, grant me the wisdom and understanding and the courage to live according to your ways. Endow me with an abundance of the gifts of your Holy Spirit so that I will be unto all I encounter a reflection of your beloved son, Jesus Christ.
Assist me to be less judgmental of others but to show the same compassion and love as Jesus di to all who approached Him. Open my heart to become more accepting of all and more generous with the gifts you have provided me with. I ask this in the name of your beloved son, my redeemer and savior, Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit as one triune God now and forever unto the ages of ages. AMEN