32nd Sunday Homily - In God we Trust!



“In God we Trust” has been on our paper money in the United States for many decades now, since 1957. Ironic I think, or maybe even hypocritical?

Trust; to give our trust indicates our degree of freedom

I think trust comes naturally to us it is ingrained since it is also a part of God’s very nature.
It is first for us a biological imperative. Newborns must trust parents and families to care for them, otherwise they would not survive after they are born.
They then develop bonds early on with Moms and Dads, and even siblings that says these people are safe. I can trust them! Which then gives them a security for which to explore the world around them.

I watch when parents, especially new parents, bring in their babies to church. Some babies look at everything, but almost always they look for their moms and dads to make sure if it is safe. Is this person in strange clothes a good man?

Trust grows from that. Knowing they are safe, they begin to explore the world around them.

As we continue to develop, it moves from a purely biological imperative to become a choice, which also reflects a deep need.
We always to trust in others, feel safe with others. And we begin to discern who those others are.
We start off with friendships and then some of these blossom into deeper relationships.
We can fall in love; and lets face it, there is no rush like realizing we have fallen for someone.
And there is no greater hurt when at times that trust gets broken, along with our hearts. What do we do with that broken heart?

Trust also applies to God.
God clearly trusts us.
The Father from the very beginning entrusted humanity with the care of the world; and we broke that trust.

The Father entrusted humanity with deeper knowledge of himself through the Word and through the prophets, and we broke that trust.

The Father gave to us his beloved Son so that we would understand just how much the Father loves us.
And we very much broke that trust.

Yet the Father’s love for us, the Father’s trust in us, remains!
The Resurrection reveals that even after the cross, the Father still trusts us, and wants us to Trust in him.  We celebrate this in the Eucharist.

Why?

Trust in God frees us.
It is that secure place from which we can explore the world and ourselves.
It is that secure place from which we can experience our own humanity, our own personhood and grow.


Knowing that the Father loves us and trusts us, and that no matter what, that love and trust will never, ever go away…
We can take the risk to give our trust to others, to give our love to others, to do what is right and just in this world, and help alleviate suffering, to help build up our families.

I tend to think that a lot of suffering is caused by our failure to trust.
We choose to be fearful.

This woman that Jesus points out is a woman in poverty and at risk, yet who trusted that her needs would be cared for; and this enabled her to freely give of what she had so that others could be cared for.  This women demonstrated the salvation of Trust.

Have we?

Life is not easy right? We will all face heartbreak, and adversity. We have a choice...we can choose to go all bitter and focus inward on our own wounds, our own hurts, our own sadness, fears, anger, live with suspicions and conspiracies...and that in reality leads us to a small life, not a full life.

Or, we can trust in God’s goodness, trust in the goodness of this world, in our own goodness and that of others, and take the risk to be generous in our mercy, in our compassion, in forgiving those who have hurt us, in taking the risk of thinking maybe I have more than I need and I can want to give to others who are in danger of falling in the cracks.

We can keep our eyes (and hearts) secure on God, and see the world around us.

In God we Trust...

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