“TRUST is the foundation of marriage,” my dear friend Prosy said during a dinner engagement. “Certainly, it is the basis for any other relationships, whether it is friendship, business, or church,” I responded. “Take away trust and everything would crumble.”
I remember preaching about this to my parishioners as we continued our pledge to renovate and restore our church. “You’ve got to believe in me, your pastor; otherwise we’re not going to be successful in this endeavor,” I told my people. Trust between a pastor and a congregation is vital to the growth and success of any ministry or project in church.
Trust in God is an attitude we need to keep in fulfilling our responsibilities. We’ve got to believe in God’s providence. There are many times when we feel giving up, when we doubt our capacities and the power of God to bring fruition to our efforts. But in my personal experience, God never fails us. Yes, he may not give our needs instantly; however, he always listens to our prayers. We must persist in our prayers to him until his heart is moved with pity. Take for example the Gospel this Sunday about the healing of the paralytic. Jesus saw the faith of his friends who lowered him from the roof top to get Jesus’ attention. The Lord saw their persistence and faith and he was moved with compassion.
The Second Reading this Sunday from 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 attests to the fidelity of God to us. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us, Silvanus and Timothy and me, was not “yes” and “no” but “yes” has been him. God’s yes is there especially when he sees how hard we work and how faithful we are to him.
The capacity to trust someone in a relationship is obtained only by a deeper knowledge of this person. Recently, I felt that I was being judged by someone who just started a business relationship with the church. He kept bringing up things that our parish needs to do until he realized through various visits and encounters with our parishioners how vibrant and creative our church is already. “You really don’t know me yet and our people,” I told him. This goes too with God. We’ve got to know Him well and all that he has done for people in order to trust him. This is why it is important to hear testimonies of God’s wondrous work in our lives from other people.
We just celebrated Valentine’s Day and I hope that we nurture our hearts with trust in one another and in God. Only then can we live in peace, harmony, and joy!
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
