As we look around the world and even within the Church herself in these days, there seem to be many reasons to have doubts about the future.

The economy just doesn’t seem to be improving and people begin to ask themselves if our current levels of debt and unemployment represent the new normal.

The advancing secularism of our time combined with the governmental and societal pressures against the Church and her freedom leave many to wonder if we are not fighting a losing battle.

And among the faithful we still encounter squabbles and dissent against our Catholic faith, as well as concerns about leadership and administration.

But challenges to faith have been a part of the life of the Church since Christ’s followers gazed at him, apparently overcome and defeated, as he hung on the cross. Out of those challenges have always come the signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding and strengthening the whole Church.

I was thinking of this reality in the context of a homily that Pope Benedict XVI recently pronounced at a Mass where he gathers each year with some of his former students from his days as a professor.

The Holy Father reflected on Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 4:7, “What great nation has statues and ordinances that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”

As the pope noted in that homily, the Church today is the people of Israel made universal. The gifts of knowledge and wisdom that were given to guide the people of Israel have been entrusted and brought to fulfillment in us, the Church.

That means we must continue to live with confidence, hope and trust in God because, through the Church, He is so very close to us.

In that passage, Moses spoke about the gift of the law, given to the people of Israel. Whether we speak about God’s Law, His will, or the teaching of the Church, we are ultimately speaking about what is truly a gift. It is a blessing, freely given, by which God helps us to answer the most basic questions about ourselves: who and why we are.

Given our fragile human nature, damaged as it is by the effects of original sin, this gift is not always easily accepted. Haven’t we seen occasions when people seem to bristle at the idea of a law telling us what to do? The law, that is God’s will for our good, is then misunderstood to be an imposition that limits human freedom instead of being received as the truth that sets us free.

The Holy Father also pointed out that, if we do not see the wisdom and guidance from God and the Church as a gift that we should treasure and for which we must be grateful, we risk seeing it as our possession. Then, like any other possession, God’s Law could be tragically twisted or manipulated to be made more workable, more convenient to our own desires.

The comments of the Holy Father lead us back to a basic concept of our faith. That is, each of us is made in the image and likeness of God. That means that there is a nature, a reality, a truth from God that has been placed within us.

God’s Law, conveyed to us by the Scriptures, authentic prayer and the teaching of the Church gives us freedom and fulfillment by showing us how to live as God intended.

How blessed we are indeed that through the Church, God keeps us so close to Himself, showing us His love and His law, made for our wellbeing.