Each day until Divine Mercy Sunday on April 7th, I will email you one thought from that day’s brief reading from Fr. Michael Gaitley’s fine book, 33 Days to Merciful Love. I render full credit for these thoughts, respecting copyright laws, to Fr. Gaitley. I will conclude each day with a prayer, which I ask you to pray with me for this intention: the conversion of our parish. Only God can make every one of us saints, ready for heaven, and that is the intention for which I ask you to pray for in this novena.
Day Two
Yesterday we considered how evil planted doubt in our Mother Eve’s heart, and how she lost trust in God’s goodness. Today we consider Father Abraham, sixteen chapters down from Eve in the Book of Genesis. While Eve doubted, Abraham believed, and so we call him “Our Father in Faith” in the great Eucharistic Prayer. God asked Abraham to: 1) leave his homeland for an unknown destination 2) sign a covenant with no security or specification for its fulfilment 3) sacrifice his only beloved son, his only security of the covenant. Abraham, “hoping against hope” (Romans 4:18), did all these things. It wasn’t easy to believe, to hope, to trust, and to love God under these circumstances.
At some point in life, we are all tempted to think God is a liar, that He doesn’t keep his promises after all. This most often happens in marriage: “I made a vow, and my spouse made a vow, but my spouse is not keeping his or her vow. And I was told that if I keep my vows, all will be well. Well, all is not well, even though I kept faith. Where is God when I need him most?”
Recently a priest friend, looking at the chaos and decline of the Catholic Church (at least in the wealthier countries), and the lack of support from his pope, his bishop, and his people, simply said “I didn’t sign up for this!” But then he smiled. “But neither did any of us,” he said “and so the only thing is to trust that Someone upstairs knows what He’s doing!” That simple faith in God is the faith of Abraham, so let’s pray to Father Abraham for the grace of faith in God’s merciful love, in every circumstance and season of our lives.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Please give me such trust in God’s Word that I might even hope against hope.
Day Two
Yesterday we considered how evil planted doubt in our Mother Eve’s heart, and how she lost trust in God’s goodness. Today we consider Father Abraham, sixteen chapters down from Eve in the Book of Genesis. While Eve doubted, Abraham believed, and so we call him “Our Father in Faith” in the great Eucharistic Prayer. God asked Abraham to: 1) leave his homeland for an unknown destination 2) sign a covenant with no security or specification for its fulfilment 3) sacrifice his only beloved son, his only security of the covenant. Abraham, “hoping against hope” (Romans 4:18), did all these things. It wasn’t easy to believe, to hope, to trust, and to love God under these circumstances.
At some point in life, we are all tempted to think God is a liar, that He doesn’t keep his promises after all. This most often happens in marriage: “I made a vow, and my spouse made a vow, but my spouse is not keeping his or her vow. And I was told that if I keep my vows, all will be well. Well, all is not well, even though I kept faith. Where is God when I need him most?”
Recently a priest friend, looking at the chaos and decline of the Catholic Church (at least in the wealthier countries), and the lack of support from his pope, his bishop, and his people, simply said “I didn’t sign up for this!” But then he smiled. “But neither did any of us,” he said “and so the only thing is to trust that Someone upstairs knows what He’s doing!” That simple faith in God is the faith of Abraham, so let’s pray to Father Abraham for the grace of faith in God’s merciful love, in every circumstance and season of our lives.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Please give me such trust in God’s Word that I might even hope against hope.
God told Abraham to "count the number of stars in the sky, if you can. Thus shall be the number of our children, if you keep faith in me." Last summer I made a great journey in the Sierras with two friends. This picture was taken from that same John Muir Trail by Ron Fong, one of my parishioners, who hiked the trail a few months after us.
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