Trust in the Lord forever. Thus counsels the prophet today. Using the familiar metaphor of God, our eternal Rock, the essential message of the Scriptures today is to put trust in God. Trust in the Lord is more than reliance on God and seeking security in God’s arms. Trust in God is possible for us because God first trusts us. Although we so often betray that trust, God never loses confidence in us, never gives up on us.
Trust implies an active empowerment of the other to be everything that the other can be. To trust someone is to call that person to a better self, to act in a new way. This is the essence of God’s trust in us. God forgives us our sins because God trusts us to do better when we say that we will do so.
The Gospel brings us the same message and the same metaphor, using the rock as a foundation. The wise Christian will build a house of faith on solid, reliable rock rather than on the shifting sands of complacency and lack of resolve.
Of course we cannot build our house of faith by ourselves. Implicit in our relationship with God is the fact that we are powerless. However, those who realize that they are powerless can tap into God’s strength and win the struggle to build a strong fortress against the heat of the world’s indifference and lack of faith.
The figure of St. Nicholas is best honored as a man who defended the faith. While he is known as a wonder worker, his principle gift is the defense of the faith. He was reputedly one of those who was present at the Council of Nicaea and was a signatory of the Nicene Creed.
We pray with the psalmist today during our Eucharist, “It is better to put trust in the Lord than to trust in princes.”
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator