Believing in God is easy, but trusting in God is significantly more difficult. The Catholic Church holds that you can prove the existence of God with reason (not with mathematical precision, but with a good grasp of metaphysics), although trusting in God solely relies on Faith. Faith is not blind, it is a reasonable assent to the credibility of a source, but see how often we question the credibility of God as a source. It is not that we doubt the fundamentals of our faith, but when it comes to our own personal lives, we want to pretend we know better. We try to bargain with God, or demand that He show us everything about our discernment at once.
Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position, and from it stems fear and worry about the future. Despite that discomfort, uncertainty is part of every human life. In our discernment, we can often despair by not knowing for sure what God wants us to do, and that can be paralyzing. It is like a path of stones is set before us, and there is a fog that blurs our vision of everything except what is directly in front to us. Many times, we beg God to simply take the fog away, so we can see clearly, but most often, he guides us out of the fog one step at a time. He is most likely not going infuse us with full understanding of the situation, because that would violate our nature, but rather he works with us in human ways to help us discover our vocation which is within ourselves.
All throughout the Bible, a common theme is how God works through human beings to make himself known: in the Old Testament, he spoke through prophets, as well as historical accounts, laws, and even poetry; in the New Testament, the Son took on our very nature and became flesh. Why did Jesus, after the Resurrection, not appear publicly, but rather only to his disciples? A big part of that answer is because he wanted to make himself manifest through the Church- again, speaking through his people.
The point here is that in our discernments, God is not usually going to wave his mighty hand and make every difficulty go away, although he is quite capable of doing so, because it is through human means that he usually works. It is actually through the struggle that we grow, and when our next step becomes clear, we have to be courageous, even if we can’t know for sure where it will lead.
Look at Mary during the Annunciation, when she said, “Let it be done according to your word.” Did she know where it would lead? Certainly she had a good idea, she was a good Jewish woman who was well aware of the Messianic prophesies (for instance, she knew he would suffer innocently on behalf of his people), although at the time she probably didn’t know exactly how they were going to fulfilled, only that her Child would fulfill them. Mary’s trust is the trust that we need to have: not blindness or cluelessness, but informed trust, and the trust that God will fulfill us, and lead us into deeper love of Him.
Patrick Erdmann
Latest posts by Patrick Erdmann (see all)
- Faith and Trust - October 24, 2017
- The Star of the Sea - March 1, 2017
- The Days of our Lives - October 5, 2016
