Trust in the Lord and
do good, so you will dwell in the land and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you
the desires of your heart. Commit your
way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your vindication as the
light, and your right as the noonday.[1]
This one of
those passages which, I think, we fail to give due notice to because, to a
degree, we do have trust in God. Otherwise,
we would not go to church, would not turn to him for anything. However, if we seriously think about it, our
trust in God is slight. How often in the
Gospel does our Lord rebuke his disciples, “Oh, you of little faith.” This also applies to us. In our passage, God is not speaking to
non-believers; he is speaking to his people, believers.
Why is God
telling his people to trust in him if they already trust in him? These words are from the psalmist, King
David. If we could have asked the people
of the united kingdom of Israel at the time whether they trusted in God or not,
I assume they would have answered resoundingly, “Oh, yes!” Nevertheless, God is telling them to trust in
him. He would not have told them to
trust in him if they were already trusting in him. If they were trusting in him, he would have
exhorted them in the continuation thereof, by saying something to the effect,
“Keep trusting in the Lord, and keep doing good…” Today, if we could ask everyone who believes
they are a Christian whether they trust in God, they would say, “Of
course.” Nevertheless, what we think and
say might not be the case. Just as in
the case of the Israelites, we are not the Judge.
This is not
to cause us to despair, but it is cause us to not fall into presumption. It should keep us repenting and returning
continuously to our Lord. We often
confess sins that we have difficulty with, and we may see little or, seemingly,
no progress in overcoming them. St.
Augustine reminds us, “The fault by which sin is committed is not yet in every
respect healed and the fact of its becoming permanently fixed in us arises from
our not rightly using the healing virtue; and so out of this faulty condition
the man who is now growing strong in depravity commits many sins, either through
infirmity or blindness.”[2] He goes on to state, “Prayer must therefore
be made for him, that he may be healed and that he may thenceforward attain to
a life of uninterrupted soundness of health.”[3] Hence, our infirmities and/or blindness keeps
us from being permanently healed. Seeing
this, we pray.
St.
Alphonsus de Ligouri gives us instruction in how to overcome this infirmity or
blindness when he says: “What is man that You should magnify him, or why do You
set Your Heart upon him? (Job, 7:17).
Such was the astonished cry of Job when he considered the marvelous
condescension of God in loving man and in longing to be loved by him. Hence, it is a mistake to think that great
confidence and familiarity in treating with God is a [lack] of reverence
towards His infinite Majesty. You
should, indeed … worship Him in all humility and prostrate yourself before Him,
especially when you call to mind the ingratitude and sin of which, in the past,
you may have been guilty. Yet, this
should not hinder you from treating Him with the most tender confidence and
love. He is infinite majesty; but, at
the same time, He is infinite love and goodness. In God, you possess the most exalted and
supreme Lord, but also a Friend who loves you with the greatest possible
love. He is not offended—on the
contrary, He is pleased—when you treat Him with that confidence, freedom, and
tenderness with which a child treats its mother. Hear how He invites us to go to Him and even
promises to welcome us with His caresses: ‘You shall be carried at the breasts;
and, upon the knees; they shall caress you.
As one whom the mother caresses, so will I comfort you’ (Isaiah
66:12). As a mother delights to place
her child upon her knees, there to feed or fondle it, so is our merciful God
pleased to treat souls whom He loves, who have given themselves wholly to Him
and placed all their hopes in His goodness. Bear well in mind that you have neither
friend, nor brother, nor father, nor mother, nor spouse, nor lover, who loves
you more than God. Divine grace is that
great treasure whereby we, vile creatures and poor servants, become the dear
friends of our Creator Himself: ‘For she is an infinite treasure to men, which
they that use, become the friends of God’ (Wisdom 7:14).”[4] Therefore, it is not of ourselves that we
create trust in God; it is God who makes us trust him when we just begin to
turn to him.
Many times,
when we prevail over sins, we are inclined to attribute this St. Augustine admonishes us:
“Premature, however, this forwardness … to triumph over pride may perhaps be,
as if it were now vanquished, whereas its last shadow is to be swallowed up, as
I suppose, in that noontide which is promised in the scripture which says, ‘He
shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the
noonday’ (Ps 37:6).”[5] In other words, although many times we think
we have triumphed over pride and sin, we find out later that we are falling
back into those sins as a result of pride.
For this reason, the saint continues: “Provided that be done which was
written in the preceding verse, ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in
Him, and He shall bring it to pass’ (Ps 37:5)—not, as some suppose, that they
themselves bring it to pass.”[6] On the surface, when speaking to others, we
may attribute the triumph to God; however, inside, there is this feeling, “I
have overcome; I have prevailed.” If this
was not the case, our Lord would not be constantly reminding us that it is he
who shall bring it to pass. Therefore,
Augustine continues: “Now, when he said, ‘And He shall bring it to pass,’ he
evidently had none other in mind but those who say, ‘We ourselves bring it to
pass; that is to say, we ourselves justify our own selves’.”
Now, it is
true that we do some work in this prevailing.
We are given a free will, and we must cooperate with this grace of God,
as we learn from Augustine: “In this matter, no doubt, we do ourselves, too,
work; but we are fellow-workers with Him who does the work, because His mercy
anticipates us. He anticipates us,
however, that we may be healed; but then He will also follow us--that, being
healed, we may grow healthy and strong. He
anticipates us that we may be called; He will follow us, that we may be
glorified. He anticipates us that we may
lead godly lives; He will follow us, that we may always live with Him because,
without Him, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5). Now, the Scriptures refer to both these
operations of grace. There is both this:
‘The God of my mercy shall anticipate me’ (Ps 59:10) and, again, this: ‘Your
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life’ (Ps 23:6). Let us, therefore, reveal this by making our
confession to Him; for, however much we may endeavor to conceal it, it is not [hidden]
from Him. It is a good thing to confess
unto the Lord.”[7] It is good to see that every triumph, every
time good occurs or every time we prevail, we see as being accomplished by God
for us. It is in this that our trust in
God grows continually. If we—even a
little—give the accomplishment to ourselves, it will cause us to have
confidence in ourselves—not God.
St.
Augustine continues: “So will He bestow on us whatever pleases Him, that, if
there be anything displeasing to Him in us, it will also be displeasing to us. ‘He will,’ as the Scripture has said, ‘turn
aside our paths from His own way’ (Ps 44:18) and will make that which is His
own to be our way, because it is by Himself that the favor is bestowed on such
as believe in Him and hope in Him that we will do it. For there is a way of righteousness of which [people]
are ignorant, ‘who have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge’ (Ro
10:2), and who, wishing to frame a righteousness of their own, ‘have not
submitted themselves to the righteousness of God’ (Ro 10:3).”[8] Because of our infirmities and/or blindness,
we are often attempting to make a righteousness of our own, according to our
thoughts, feelings, and passions, not according to knowledge of God and his
righteousness. We have a zeal for God,
but we are ignorant because we are not submitting ourselves to knowledge—which the
Church teaches, if we but had ears to hear—and the righteousness of God.
Now, this
can get a little confusing. We have the
passage we are discussing, telling us we have a lack of trust in God, and then
we have passages such as John 3:16: For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life.[9] It seems to be conflicting, leading us to
disregard passages which are “harsh.” We
tend to think that those passages pertain to the non-believers. That would be a mistake, for that would take
away the benefit of those passages to us and, also, cause us to sin in that we
would be putting ourselves above those who are “not as wise as us.” Non-believers are probably not going to read
these passages. God did not give his Law
to the pagan nations; he gave them to his people. Therefore, with these passages, he is guiding
them. St. Augustine goes on to explain:
“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes’ (Ro
10:4), and He has said, ‘I am the way’ (Jn 14:6). Yet, God’s voice has alarmed those who have
already begun to walk in this way, lest they should be lifted up, as if it were
by their own energies that they were walking therein. For the same persons to whom the apostle, on
account of this danger, says, ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling, for it is God that works in you, both to will and to do of His good
pleasure’ (Phil 2:12) are likewise for the self-same reason admonished in the
psalm: ‘Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling. Accept correction, lest at any time the Lord
be angry and you perish from the righteous way, when His wrath shall be
suddenly kindled upon you’ (Ps 2:11-12). He does not say, ‘Lest at any time the Lord be
angry and refuse to show you the righteous way’ or ‘refuse to lead you into the
way of righteousness;’ but, even after you are walking therein, he was able so
to terrify as to say, ‘Lest you perish from the righteous way.’ Now, [from what] could this arise if not from
pride, which (as I have so often said, and must repeat again and again) has to
be guarded against even in things which are rightly done--that is, in the very
way of righteousness--lest a man, by regarding as his own that which is really
God’s, lose what is God’s and be reduced merely to what is his own? Let us then carry out the concluding
injunction of this same psalm, ‘Blessed are all they that trust in Him’ (Ps
2:12), so that He may Himself indeed effect and Himself show His own way in us,
to whom it is said, ‘Show us your mercy, O Lord’ (Ps 85:7).”[10] Therefore, it is good that we have the
“harsh” passages as well as the encouraging.
The “harsh” passages are to keep us from falling into presumption and to
keep us returning to him, while the encouraging passages remind us that he is
desiring to forgive us and lead us. He
is telling us that we have not arrived yet, that we have not already
accomplished. Therefore, he is telling
us to keep turning to him, which we do when we pray, go to Mass, visit the
Sacrament of Reconciliation, and partake of the Eucharist.
We must not
lessen the severity of the “harsh” passages, allowing ourselves to fall into
presumption, thinking, “God loves me; he will not allow me to perish.” Speaking to the Corinthian believers—and to
us—St. Paul instructs that the things in the Old Testament are warnings for us:
Now these things are warnings for us, not
to desire evil as they did. Do not be
idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat
and drink and rose up to dance.’ We must
not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell
in a single day. We must not put the
Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor
grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as a
warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of
the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone
who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.[11] Therefore, let us take these passages to
heart, repenting and having confidence that God is anxious to forgive and save
us.
St.
Alphonsus exhorts: “‘Think of the Lord in goodness’ (Wisdom 1:1). In these words, the inspired writer exhorts
us to have more confidence in the divine mercy than dread of the divine
justice. For God is incomparably more inclined to bestow favors upon us
than to chastise us, as Saint James says: ‘Mercy exalts itself above judgment’
(2:13). For this reason, Saint Peter
exhorts us in all our fears—whether for our temporal or eternal interests—to
abandon ourselves entirely to the goodness of God, who has the interests of our
salvation at heart: ‘Casting all your care upon Him, for He has care of you’ (1
Peter 5:7). The royal prophet, David,
has the same message of hope when he gives to God the beautiful title of our
God and the God who is willing to save us: ‘Our God is the God of salvation’
(Ps 68:20 in the Hebrew or, in the Vulgate, Psalm 67:21). This means, as (Saint Robert) Bellarmine
explains it, that it is the will of God, not to condemn, but to save all. He threatens with His displeasure those who
despise Him; but He promises mercy to those who fear Him.”[12] We can also read the book of Judges. God’s people were continuously doing what was
right in their own eyes; therefore, God would send tribulations their way,
which would cause them to repent. At
that time, God would send a savior. God
is still doing the same thing today, because we also “do what is right in our
own eyes.” See the goodness of God in
our hardships. When we do what is right
in our own eyes, we are not trusting God and are seeking a righteousness of our
own.
St.
Augustine explains: “[God] himself bestow[s] on us the pathway of safety that
we may walk therein, to whom the prayer is offered, ‘And grant us your
salvation’ (Ps 85:7); and Himself lead[s] us in the self-same way, to whom
again it is said, ‘Guide me, O Lord, in your way, and in your truth will I walk’
(Ps 86:11); Himself, too, conduct us to those promises [to which] His way
leads, to whom it is said, ‘Even there shall your hand lead me and your right
hand shall hold me’ (Ps 139:10); Himself pasture therein those who sit down
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom it is said, ‘He shall make them sit
down to meat, and will come forth and serve them’ (Lk 12:37).”[13] This causes us to place no confidence in
ourselves at all, but trust wholeheartedly in God. He is anxious to save us and lead us in his
paths—if we are repenting and trusting in his mercy. This pathway is the precepts that Jesus has
given his Church. All we have to do is
renew our minds,[14]
praying that the Lord will give us the grace to abide by what he is teaching us
through his Word and the precepts of his Church.
Augustine
goes on to explain: “Now, we do not, when we make mention of these things, take
away freedom of will, but we preach the grace of God. For to whom are those gracious gifts of use
but to the man who uses--but humbly uses--his own will and makes no boast of
the power and energy thereof, as if it alone were sufficient for perfecting him
in righteousness? Holy David indeed
says, ‘Hope in the Lord and be doing good’ (Ps 37:3). But this is a precept and not an accomplished
fact… Most true, indeed, it is that man
shall have many blessings when he shall have departed from all sin. Then, no
evil shall [occur to] him, nor shall he have need of the prayer, ‘Deliver us
from evil’ (Mt 6:13). Although … every
man who progresses, advancing ever with an upright purpose, departs from all
sin and becomes further removed from it as he approaches nearer to the fulness
and perfection of the righteous state--because even concupiscence itself, which
is sin dwelling in our flesh, never ceases to diminish in those who are making
progress, although it still remains in their mortal members. It is one thing, therefore, to depart from all
sin—a process which is even now in operation—and another thing to have departed
from all sin, which shall happen in the state of future perfection.”[15] In other words, as long as it is our desire
to be like Christ, confessing, repenting, and trusting in God, it is accounted
to us that we have departed from all sin.
However, when we allow presumption to prevail, we are endangering our
souls. Thence, we have God warning us, telling
us to repent and trust in him. Jesus
teaches us to pray in the “Our Father” that he delivers us from evil. When we have departed from all sin, there
will be no evil to us; therefore, there will be no need for that petition.
Continuing
with the words of St. Augustine: “‘Trust in the Lord.” … They too trust, but not ‘in the Lord.’ Their hope is perishable. Their hope is short-lived, frail, fleeting,
transitory, baseless. ‘Trust in the
Lord.’ ‘Behold,’ you say, ‘I do trust;
what am I to do?’ ‘And do good.’ Do not do that evil which you behold in those
men, who are prosperous in wickedness. ‘Do
good, and dwell in the land,’ [in case, by chance] you should be doing good
without ‘dwelling in the land.’ For it
is the Church that is the Lord’s land. It
is her whom He, the Father, the tiller of it, waters and cultivates. For there are many that, as it were, do good
works but, yet, in that they do not ‘dwell in the land,’ they do not belong to
the husbandman. Therefore, do your good,
not outside of the land, but do ‘dwell in the land.’ And what shall I have? ‘And you shall be fed in its riches.’ What are the riches of that land? Her riches are her Lord! Her riches are her God! He it is to whom it is said, ‘The Lord is the
portion of mine inheritance and of my cup’ (Ps 16:5). …God is our possession and … we are at the
same time God’s possession.”[16] We pray that God increase our trust. The
apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”[17] They realized that they could not increase their
faith on their own, that only the Son of God could increase faith (trust). Our Lord goes on to say, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this
sycamine tree, ‘Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey
you.”[18] This explains how little our trust
is. Only he can increase it.
Now, there
is a promise attached to our passage: Take
delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. There are some who interpret this: Take
delight in the Lord, and he will give you the things you want. St. Augustine quickly quashes that notion: “‘And
He shall give you the desires of your heart.’ Understand, in their proper [meaning], ‘the
desires of your heart.’ Distinguish the ‘desires
of your heart’ from the desires of your flesh.
Distinguish as much as you can. It
is not without a meaning that it is said in a certain Psalm, ‘God is’ (the
strength) ‘of mine heart.’ For, there,
it says in what follows: ‘And God is my portion forever.’ For instance: One labors under bodily
blindness. He asks that he may receive
his sight. Let him ask it, for God does
that too, and gives those blessings also. But these things are asked for even by the
wicked. This is a desire of the flesh. One is sick, and prays to be made sound. From the point of death, he is restored to
health. That, too, is a desire of the
flesh, as are all of such a kind. What
is ‘the desire of the heart’? As the
desire of the flesh is to wish to have one’s eyesight restored, to enable him …
to see that light which can be seen by such eyes, so ‘the desire of the heart’
relates to a different sort of light. For,
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ ‘Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall
give you the desires of your heart.”[19] In other words, the desires of our heart
should only be those things which will make us the image of our Lord, Jesus
Christ.
St.
Augustine continues: “‘Behold’ (you say), ‘I do long after it; I do ask for it;
I do desire it. Shall I then accomplish
it?’ No. Who shall then? ‘Reveal your way unto the Lord; trust also in
Him; and He shall bring it to pass’ (ver. 5). Mention to Him what you suffer; mention to Him
what you desire. For, what is it that you
suffer? ‘The flesh lusts against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh’ (Gal 5:17). What is it, then, that you desire? ‘Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death (Ro 7:24)?’ And, because it is He ‘Himself’
that ‘will bring it to pass,’ when you have ‘revealed your ways unto Him,’ hear
what follows: ‘The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ What is it, then, that He is to bring to pass,
since it is said, ‘Reveal thy way unto Him, and He will bring it to pass’? What will He bring to pass? ‘And He shall bring forth your righteousness
as the light’ (ver. 6). For, now, ‘your
righteousness’ is [hidden]. Now, it is a
thing of faith, not yet of sight. You
believe something that you may do it. You
do not yet see that in which you believe. But, when you … begin to see that which you
believed before, ‘your righteousness will be brought forth to the light’
because it is your faith that [shall be] righteousness, for ‘the just lives by
faith’.”[20] Although we may not see a drastic increase in
trust immediately, we are promised that He will give it to us. Therefore, we keep praying and acting.
St.
Alphonsus de Ligouri tells us: “The Venerable Father Alphonsus Alvarez saw our
Lord on one occasion with His hands filled with graces, going about seeking
souls to whom He might dispense them. But
He will have us ask Him for them: Ask and you shall receive; otherwise, He will
withdraw His hands. He will, on the
contrary, stretch them out to us and willingly open them to us if we invoke
Him. Whoever had recourse to God, asks
Ecclesiasticus, and God despised him by refusing to hear him? ‘Who has called upon Him, and He despised
him?’ (2–11). David declares that God
shows not only mercy, but great mercy, to those who invoke Him: ‘For You, O
Lord, are sweet and mild; and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon You’
(Psalm 86:5 in the Hebrew or, in the Vulgate, Psalm 85:5). How good and kind God is to those who lovingly
seek Him! ‘The Lord is good to the soul
that seeks Him’ (Lamentations 3:25). He
is found even by those who do not seek Him: ‘I was found by them that did not
seek Me’ (Romans 10:20); with far greater willingness He will anticipate those
who seek Him in order to serve and love Him.”[21]
St. Robert
Bellarmine, in his exposition of this passages, states: “To work, to be in
God’s peace, so that one may securely confide in him, they must have love; and,
therefore, he says, ‘Delight in the Lord;’ love God from your heart, let him be
your delight, and then you will be safe, because ‘he will give you the requests
of your heart,’ whatever your heart shall desire. An objection: We know many who ‘trusted in the
Lord,’ who ‘did good,’ and who ‘delighted in the Lord,’ and still were not
allowed ‘to dwell in the land,’ nor ‘to be fed with its riches,’ nor to get ‘the
requests of their heart,’ to say nothing of the countless multitudes of holy
souls who are in extreme want. Certainly,
St. Paul ‘trusted in the Lord’ and ‘did good;’ and, yet, according to himself
(1 Cor 4), ‘He was hungry and thirsty, and was naked, and was cast out as the
refuse and the off-scouring of this world;’ and, though ‘he delighted in the
Lord,’ the Lord did not grant him ‘the request of his heart,’ for, though he
asked three times to ‘be delivered from the sting of his flesh,’ yet he was not
heard. The answer is: The greater part
of those who are in extreme want do not ‘trust in the Lord’ as they ought, do
not observe his commandments as he requires, much less are they ‘delighted in
the Lord;’ for, to say nothing of the promises contained in this Psalm, Christ
himself most clearly says to us, ‘Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow
not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are not you of much more value
than they? Seek, therefore, first the
kingdom of God and his justice, and all those things shall be added unto you.’ There can be no doubt, then, but that God will
provide all necessaries for his own, if they really put their trust in him and
keep his commandments. If the contrary
sometimes happens, as was the case with St. Paul, the reason is: because God
chose to give them something better, with which they are more contented, and
that is the great merit of patience; for the very same Paul, who so described
his want and his other tribulations, wrote in another place, “I am filled with
comfort; I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation;’ and, thus,
though God did not grant ‘the requests of his heart’ by removing ‘the sting of
his flesh,’ he gave him an abundance of grace to convert that sting into a
powerful source of triumph. He,
therefore, withheld a thing of trifling value, that he may confer one of
immense value, which he knew was the real ‘request of his heart’.”[22] This is part of our trusting in God. When we express to him the desires of our
heart, he will either grant our request or give us something better. We must not erroneously think that we love
God because we say we love him. If you love me, you will keep my
commandments.[23] The flip side of that is: If you don’t keep
my commandments, you don’t love me.
Therefore, we need to pray, “Lord, I desire to love you; put the love of
you in me,” trusting in God, not ourselves.
Returning
to St. Augustine’s exposition: “‘Submit to the Lord, and entreat Him’ (ver. 7).
[Let this be] your life: to obey His
commandments--for this is to submit to Him--and to entreat Him until He gives
you what He has promised. Let good works
‘continue;’ let prayer ‘continue.’ For ‘men
ought always to pray and not to faint’ (Lk 18:1). Wherein do you show that you are ‘submitted to
Him’? In doing what He has commanded. But, [by chance], you do not receive your
wages as yet because, as yet, you are not able. For He is already able to give them, but you
are not already able to receive them. Exercise yourself in works. Labor in the vineyard. At the close of the day, crave your wages. ‘Faithful is He’ who brought you into the
vineyard. ‘Submit to the Lord, and
entreat Him’.”[24]
Many times,
as soon as we hear, or read, the word “works,” we think, “Oh, no, what do I
have to do? How often?” It can cause us to despair. Once again, we turn to the One who has the
power, asking God to give us desires.
St. Alphonsus advises us: “Whenever you are in doubt about
anything—whether it regards yourself or others—act like good friends do, who
always consult one another in their difficulties. Show the same mark of confidence to God;
consult Him; ask Him to enlighten you, that you may decide on what is most
pleasing to Him: ‘Put You words in my mouth and strengthen the resolution in my
heart’ (Judith 9:18). Lord, make known
to me what You would have me do, to answer, and I will obey You: ‘Speak, Lord,
for Your servant hears (1 Samuel 3:10 in the Hebrew or, in the Vulgate, 1 Kings
3:10).”[25] God knows our weaknesses; therefore, we
should not be afraid to voice them to him.
Let us speak to Him of our thoughts and feelings. Although he already knows them, he usually
does not act until we voice them.
St.
Alphonsus explains: “Never, then, forget His sweet presence, as do the greater
part of men. Speak to Him as often as
you can, for He does not grow weary of this nor disdain it, as do the lords of
the earth. If you love Him, you will not
be at a loss what to say to Him. Tell
Him all that occurs to you about yourself and your affairs, as you would tell
it to a dear friend. Do not look upon
Him as a haughty monarch who will converse only with the great and on great
matters. He, your God, is pleased to
lower Himself to you, and to hear you communicate to Him your smallest and most
ordinary concerns. He loves you as
much—He has as much care for you—as if He had no one else to think of but you. He is as completely devoted to your interests
as though the only end of His providence was to help you, of His almighty power
to aid you, of His mercy and goodness to take pity on you, to do you good and
to win by His kindness your confidence and love. Manifest to Him, then, freely your whole state
of mind and pray to Him to enlighten you that you may perfectly accomplish His
holy will. Let all your desires and aims
be directed to learn His good pleasure and to do what is agreeable to His
divine Heart: ‘Commit your way to the Lord’; and ‘desire of Him to direct your
ways and that all your counsels may abide in Him’ (Psalm 37:5 in the Hebrew or,
in the Vulgate, Psalm 36:5 and Tobit 4:20). Say not: Why disclose all my wants to God
since He already sees and knows them better than I do? Yes, He knows them; but He acts as if He did
not know the needs about which you do not speak to Him and for which you do not
seek His aid. Our Saviour knew that
Lazarus was dead, and yet He acted as if He did not know until Mary (Magdalen)
told Him of it; it was then that He comforted her by bringing her brother back
to life.”[26]
Finally, it
is not difficult to trust God. All we
need to do is desire it, and tell him that we want to trust him, asking him to
increase our faith (trust). “I believe; help my unbelief!”[27] We keep asking until we begin trusting him,
and then we keep asking in order that he will keep increasing. He will accomplish it because he does not
desire the death of the wicked. “He
promises to receive a soul that has forsaken Him, if only it returns to His
arms: ‘Turn to Me . . . and I will turn to you’ (Zechariah 1:3). Would that sinners only knew how mercifully
our Saviour awaits them in order to pardon them: ‘The Lord waits that He may
have mercy upon you’ (Isaiah 30:18). Would
that sinners realized the desire on the part of God, not, indeed, to chastise
them, but to see them converted and to embrace and press them to His Heart: ‘As
I live, says the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the
wicked turn from his way and live’ (Ezekiel 33:11).”[28] Let us fear God because of His holiness;
however, may that fear cause us to approach him as a friend, telling him our
sins, fears, thoughts, and feelings. We
do not want ourselves to slip to the point where we begin to think he overlooks
our sins, that he no longer sees them as egregious. He will, then, cause us to trust him and obey
him.
Our trust
in God and our obedience normally occurs with a gradual increase. Our Lord tells us, “And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, ‘The old
is good’.”[29] Now, the Church fathers apply this to the
transition for the Jews from the Law to the Gospel; however, I think that—for us—it
can apply to our point. St. Gregory of
Nyssa states: “For wine newly drawn forth evaporates on account of the natural
heat in the liquor, throwing off from itself the scum by natural action. Such wine is the new covenant, which the old
skins because of their unbelief contain not and are, therefore, burst by the
excellence of the doctrine, and cause the grace of the Spirit to flow in vain, because into an evil soul wisdom will not
enter.”[30] The Venerable Bede explains: “To every soul
which is not yet renewed, but goes on still in the old way of wickedness, the
sacraments of new mysteries ought not to be given. They also who wish to mix the precepts of the
Law with the Gospel, as the Galatians did, put new wine into old bottles. It follows, No man also having drank old wine straightway desires new, for he says,
the old is better. For the Jews,
imbued with the taste of their old life, despised the precepts of the new grace
and, being defiled with the traditions of their ancestors, were not able to
perceive the sweetness of spiritual words.”[31] Archbishop John MacEvilly explains: “It is
very hard at once to overcome the force of habit, just as men accustomed to old
wine cannot be induced to wish for the new wine, or choose it all at once,
although stronger and more substantial. ‘He says, The old is better,’ more
palatable, and more agreeable for use. It
is not ‘presently,’ or all at once,
but gradually, he gives it up. So, our
Redeemer does not at once enjoin on His followers to embrace the austerities of
the New Law, to which they were hitherto unaccustomed. Making every allowance for the force of habit,
He only requires it of them gradually. He
compares the New Law and its austerities to new wine, which is stronger, and
produces an effect sooner than the old. By
saying they cannot be brought to it ‘presently,’
or all at once, He implies that this would be done by degrees, as happened
later on. ‘When the bridegroom is taken away … then they shall fast in those days’
(v. 35).”[32] Therefore, we should be hating our old ways,
yearning to be the image of our Lord, but we should not get dismayed.” We keep confessing and repenting. We need to make frequent visits to the
Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, for they will make the
transition go more quickly. Although we
will not be completely rid of our sins until we leave this world, we need to be
yearning and praying that we will be the image of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
[1] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Ps 37:3–6.
[2] Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, 1887, 5, 132–133.
[3] Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, 1887, 5, 133.
[4] de Liguori, Saint Alphonsus. How to Pray at All Times
(pp. 4-5). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition
[5] Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, 1887, 5, 133.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Jn 3:16.
[10] Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, 1887, 5, 133–134.
[11] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), 1 Co 10:6–12.
[12] de Liguori, Saint Alphonsus. How to Pray at All Times
(p. 15). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition
[13] Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, 1887, 5, 134.
[14] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Ro 12:2.
[15] Ibid., 170.
[17] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Lk 17:5.
[18] Ibid., Lk 17:6.
[19] Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin: Expositions on the Book of Psalms, 1888, 8, 92.
[20] Ibid.
[21] de
Liguori, Saint Alphonsus. How to Pray at All Times (pp. 29-30). Catholic Way
Publishing. Kindle Edition
[22] Saint
Robert Bellarmine. A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Illustrated) (pp.
166-167). Aeterna Press. Kindle Edition
[23] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Jn 14:15.
[24] Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin: Expositions on the Book of Psalms, 1888, 8, 93.
[26] Ibid., pp. 12-13
[27] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Mk 9:24.
[28] de Liguori, Saint Alphonsus. How to Pray at All Times
(p. 17). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition
[29]
Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Lk 5:39.
[30]
Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea:
Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St.
Luke, ed. John Henry Newman, (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1843),
3:196.
[31]
Ibid., 3:196–197.
[32]
John MacEvilly, An Exposition of
the Gospel of St. Luke, (Dublin: Gill & Son, 1887), 91.
