God Will Provide

“... your Father knows what you need before you ask.” Mt 6:8

In the lead up to Jesus giving us the “Our Father” (the Lord’s Prayer), he also provides several important lessons about prayer, humility, and trust in God. For example, he warns against “practicing your piety” so as to be seen by others and so to be praised by them. Similarly, Jesus tells us to pray in secret - our prayer is between us and the Father. Those who shout their prayers on streetcorners are not really communicating with God, but rather with others, trying to impress them with their holiness.

Additionally, he tells us that we should “put on a happy face,” even when fasting and performing acts of charity. Looking dismal only suits oneself, not God.

This is all great advice, especially during Lent. Lent is a time of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving (charity). These are all actions we should do cheerfully and without a lot of “splash” for the world to see. It is also a time for trust in the Lord and to work harder on our path of conversion.

One family anecdote comes to mind when I review these passages in Matthew or Luke. My mother-in-law, who was not Catholic, was raising four children as Catholics. My father-in-law was a career Army officer often in the field or deployed and leaving mom on her own with the kids. Nevertheless, she was always in great demand by the nuns at the Catholic school. At one time, the nuns’ car had a breakdown. In comes mom who was passing by and pulled over to see what she could do to help. One of the nuns said to the Mother Superior, “Mother, I thought you told us not to worry, that God would provide? It looks like Mrs. F is doing all the providing. To which the Mother Superior, without hesitation, replied, “Yes. And God provided Mrs. F.”

In a similar way, God puts people into our lives to help us. Too often we don’t see them for what they are and how they are God’s way of calling us back to him. Conversely, we might be interacting with others as God’s messengers as well. Not necessarily preaching but by our actions, example, an act of kindness, or charity, we may be showing others God’s love, thus providing them an opportunity to come back to God or just strengthen their own faith. It may simply be someone inviting us to a meeting or a parish retreat where we are presented with some spark to ignite or reignite our search for Jesus.

The confidence the nuns expressed also reminds me of the need for trusting God. As the words beneath the Divine Mercy picture say, “Jesus, I trust in you.” One of the great examples of this is Mother Angelica, who founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). Her faith and trust in God were always evident. She started this now worldwide satellite network with only two hundred dollars and trust in God and without giving in to anxiety. Again, going back to the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus warned us against anxiety, “And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?” (Mt 6:27)

St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta also witnessed to this unwavering faith and trust. Having had a very personal relationship with Jesus in the early years of her religious life, she experienced decades of “silence” from him. And yet, despite this darkness she persevered, doing the things she knew Jesus wanted, and being Jesus for others. She lived what Dr. Peter Kreeft described, “You are what the world sees of Jesus.” Dr. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Cycle C, p. 503. Similarly, she saw Jesus in the people she ministered to in the streets of Calcutta.

Such examples of faith and trust in the Lord are important for us all. Jesus repeatedly praised some for their faith, such as the woman who suffered for twelve years with a hemorrhage who trusted that just touching Jesus’s clothes would heal her. “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.” (Mt 9:20-22) Meanwhile, he chastised the Apostles several times for their lack of faith. “And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” (Mt 8:26)

“Jesus calls to conversion.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) Art. 1427). And in article 1435 the Catechism talks about conversion in our daily lives. Article 2630 states we “must be converted anew every day. God always sends us his grace and the people and events in our daily lives can also be a form of that grace to help us in our conversion; that continual growth in faith that doesn’t end until we die.

Again, Lent is a time for building our faith life. Too often people think that having been baptized and confirmed, all they need for their faith life is going to Church on Sundays and Holy Days, fasting and abstaining when the Church tells them to, and receiving the Eucharist and confessing at least once a year. However, we need to recognize that we are all sinners. Because we are sinners, Jesus calls us to his mercy. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Lk 5:32) As such, life requires conversion and conversion is a part of an active faith life. Lent calls us to conversion. An active faith life requires us to continue learning about our faith and building on the foundation of the sacraments to bring us closer to Jesus as members of his mystical body, the Church, and, in this way, do away with our fear of the future.

“Faith casts out fear.” Dr. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Cycle C, p. 532