One of the aspects of our Catholic faith that we should cling to with gratitude is the help it gives us to see and understand the world as God does. In essence, our faith puts us in contact with the truth about ourselves, about creation and about the unfolding purpose and plan for everything that surrounds us.

 

That Gospel vision gives us a sense of confidence. We can understand that life makes sense. We are working for an eternal dwelling with God. 

 

That vision helps us in two ways. First, when things are going well, we are reminded to thank God. In so doing we fight the temptation to become ungrateful, complacent or to think good things are the result of our own human efforts.

 

The second way, however, is something that can be even more valuable. When there are problems in life, in family or in the world, we can be tempted to despair or to doubt God’s love for us or even His existence. Such moments come to every one of us and they are the moments of trial for our faith. But they are also moments of great grace.

 

Many are going through such trials in these days. Apart from our personal struggles, we might reflect on three other challenges in our world.

 

First, the COVID crisis is making yet another comeback. Many are beginning to feel nervous again about coming to Church. And the rising numbers of the sick and hospitalized show us the reality that the disease we hoped was mostly behind us is still present and consequential.

 

Secondly, we have seen the heart-breaking pictures of yet another earthquake that has struck the nearby island nation of Haiti. More than 2,200 persons are known dead with many times that injured. And the poverty of Haiti makes it incapable of fully responding to the needs of its citizens.

 

Finally, we have watched with horror the collapse in recent days of the government in Afghanistan. As a result, according to news reports, the Taliban resurgence has led to suffering, terror and executions.

 

What unites these events in the modern mind is a sense that they just should not be happening in our modern and progressive era. Science, which seems to push aside the place of religion in our society, should be able to defeat illness. And yet it doesn’t stop the virus. 

 

The march of history, supposedly toward a better world of our own human making, should eliminate the vulnerabilities of poverty in societies or the horrors of a violent and undemocratic uprising. And yet people end up trying valiantly to cling to aircraft as a means of escape.

 

As usual, Jesus has given us the perspective we need. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells His hearers that in the future “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.” (Lk, 21: 10, 11). And Jesus concludes, “But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” (Lk, 21: 28).

 

The point is this: faith reminds us that we are not in control of the many of the things of this world. It is a modern conceit to think that thanks to advancements of science or somehow of humanity itself, sorrow and pain, scandal and horrors will cease.

 

These sufferings remind us that the sorrows of life are unavoidable in every age including our own, and so we need God’s help. We live in a broken world that awaits its redemption. That should neither surprise nor discourage us. 

 

Faith recognizes God’s love even in difficult moments. Those trials become an occasion for trust and humility. For us as with Jesus, it is through the cross that we find the way to salvation.