WORD ALIVE
When I did a post-graduate study at the University of Leicester in England, there was a British lady personnel named Joan with whom I occasionally talked about religion.
She related, “When I was 28 years old, my husband died in an accident; within that year, five of my relatives including my father and grandfather died.
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“I thought it was the end. Just when I was recovering from the harrowing experiences, my father-in-law died. Last year my new husband who’s a truck driver…” she paused and I held my breath thinking he died again. What happened was he bumped an old man who died on the spot!
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“I find it hard to believe there’s Someone up there,” Joan said, pointing up her finger. “What I’ve gone through can’t make me accept that God exists.”
Her story is just one of the many examples when our faith in God is badly shaken or even extinguished.
When this happens we long desperately for a sign that God is there and that Jesus is really a powerful and caring God.
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The glorious transfiguration in this Sunday’s gospel (Mt 17,1-9) was a spiritual booster to strengthen the faith of his disciples in the coming days when he would suffer terribly and die in Jerusalem.
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The nature of faith is such that no matter how faithfully we live Christ’s teachings, there will be times when our faith is tested and that’s when we just have to make a “leap of faith.”
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Faith has peak as well as low moments. When low points of our faith come, like the sudden death of a loved one, a severe financial problem, a serious sickness, a failed marriage, we can’t help worrying but we should not be overwhelmed by them.
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We feel devastated but we should not despair. After we get over the emotional crisis, we should strive to remedy the problem and move on. In the darkest moment at the Last Supper when the Lord Jesus was going to be arrested, he said to his apostles: “Don’t worry. Have faith in me; have faith in my Father.”
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As the Apostle James puts it: “Happy is the person who remains faithful under trials, because when he succeeds in passing such a test, he will receive as his reward the life which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1,12).
We’ve just begun the Lenten season. One of the Lord’s crucial messages is to strengthen our faith in him, especially when we encounter the lowest moments of our life.
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Carry your cross. One form of Lenten penance is the endurance of ordinary sufferings. For instance, a husband, who always quarreled with his wife, came home from church and suddenly lifted his wife and carried her around.
The startled wife said, “Why did you that? Did the priest tell you to be romantic?” The husband replied: “No! He told me to carry my cross!” (It could be the other way around but the man is heavier).
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Lenten charity. Lent calls us to do more acts of charity. One way of doing it is to help the seminarians we are supporting under our "Adopt A Seminarian” scholarship program. Please remember: without seminarians we cannot have priests, missionaries and bishops.
For inquiries, e-mail me at [email protected].
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Family TV mass — aired on TV5 Sport Channel 59, Free TV Ch. 41 at 6-7 a.m. every Sunday and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday at “MCFI SVD Media” Account on YouTube and Facebook Page.
Presider: Fr. Bel San Luis, Svd.