Trust the God Who Sees the Whole Picture

Today’s readings encourage us to reflect on a few things that are very important in life - things like faith, family, and the fact that sometimes, who you know can be more important than what you know… especially if the person you know is Jesus. 

The first reading tells the story of Abraham, our father in faith, who believed (hoping against hope) that the covenant God made with him—that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky and he would become the father of a great nation—would be fulfilled. As they grew older, his wife Sarah started to doubt that God would do as He had promised, but Abraham’s faith stayed strong. Abraham was an old man when his first son, Ishmael, was born from his wife’s maidservant Hagar, and was 100 years old when he was blessed with another son, Isaac, with his wife Sarah. Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob (whose name God later changed to Israel) would become the patriarchs of the Jewish people, and the twelve tribes of Israel would descend from them. In addition, his son Ishmael would go on to become the father of many of the Arab nations. 

With the continual fighting and hostility that have been going on in the Middle East generation after generation, it seems strange that much of the tension is among people who are actually related. Even if they don’t acknowledge it today, if we look in the past… we will find that many have distant family ties. 

Some of the problems and division among these people goes all the way back to Abraham. For years, Abraham and Sarah couldn’t conceive a child. Instead of trusting that God would do as He had promised, and fearful that Abraham would die without an heir, Sarah told him to have a child with Hagar, her maidservant. They conceived a child, and Ishmael was born. Later, Sarah conceived a child with Abraham as well, and Isaac was born. Today’s reading tells us that Sarah resented Hagar and Ishmael. She was jealous and didn’t want Isaac to have to share his inheritance with Ishmael. She demanded that Abraham drive Hagar and Ishmael out of the family, which he did. God, however, had mercy on them, saved them from death in the wilderness, and promised Hagar that her son, too, would be the father of a great nation. 

This story is a great reminder of the trouble we can get ourselves into when we don’t trust God or when we lose faith in Him. Abraham was a man of great faith. We know that his faith was so strong that at God’s direction, he had left his homeland and was even willing to sacrifice his son Isaac if that was God’s will. But when he agreed to conceive a child with Hagar (even though his wife encouraged him to do so because she felt that God had prevented her from having children), in a way, he was doubting whether God would fulfill the covenant he had made with him. 

Like Abraham conceiving a child with Hagar, when the going gets tough, if we can find an easy way out, we often take it. We might say all the right things, but our actions tell a different story. We take things out of God’s hands and place them into our own hands, under our control, not truly believing that God will lead us through the troubled times we’re in. We become impatient and want things in our time instead of God’s time. While these are perfectly natural feelings to have when we’re suffering, we must realize that God’s ways are not our ways—that when we turn to Him in prayer, we can’t expect Him to answer in exactly the way we want or exactly when we want. But the reality of the situation is that God is GOOD all the time, He loves us all the time, and He always answers our prayers in a way and at a time that’s best for us, even if we don’t realize it. Often, when we look back on our lives, we can clearly see that even though it may have been difficult for us to accept, God’s timing and answer to our prayers were always perfect.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus encounters two demoniacs. When they saw Him, they cried out in fear, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come to torment us?” It’s ironic that in last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Only one of the disciples spoke up—Peter, who said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus seemed surprised at Peter’s response because He said in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” Yet when the demoniacs immediately knew who He was as soon as they laid eyes on Him, Jesus didn’t seem surprised at all.

It’s unfortunate that, as humans, we aren’t able to see the spiritual world while demons (as spiritual beings) can see it quite clearly. If we could see what purely spiritual creatures like angels and demons could see… Just imagine how incredible Mass would be if we could see our Guardian Angel by our side and all the saints and angels in heaven praising God and singing GLORY to God in the highest above the sanctuary, and then… a scene like Peter, James, and John experience at the Transfiguration when the brilliant light of God Himself shines forth from the paten as the altar bread becomes Jesus Christ Himself! How would we react to such an amazing scene? Would we cry tears of joy and join in with the choirs of heaven in praising God, or would we be fearful like those who witnessed Jesus casting the demons into the swine, who didn’t recognize Him as the Son of God like the demoniacs did, and ask our Lord to leave? 

Brothers and sisters, the good news is that the fact that we can’t see the majesty that will take place this morning, at this Mass, on this altar, doesn’t diminish the reality that will take place in the least. My friends: Jesus is coming today! He’s coming here to this altar in just a few minutes—not just the presence of Jesus but Jesus Himself, everything that He is, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity… will be here. He is coming out of love to give Himself to me and to you in the Eucharist, just as He gave Himself for us on the cross. Let us rejoice in this precious gift and go forth into the world proclaiming His word, His love, His sacrifice, in all we do and say.

Amen!