Let God but let go of bad traits
“TO see is to believe” goes a familiar dictum. This “show-me-first” attitude can imply a practical hard-headedness or lack of trust in another.
* * * In the gospel of this second Sunday of Easter, the apostle Thomas manifested such a lack of trust after the resurrection of the Lord when he said, “Unless I see the scars in his hands...I refuse to believe” (Jn 20,24). And because of his doubt, the term “doubting Thomas” was coined to describe doubters and skeptics.
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Thomas got his wish when the risen Lord called him by name and mildly censured him thus: “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Touch and feel my side. Cease to doubt, but believe!” (Jn 20,27).
Confronted with the real person, there was no more need for Thomas to touch, to feel Christ’s side. Instead he fell on his knees and cried: “You are my Lord and my God.” By the way, these are the words of faith we profess at the Consecration in the Mass.
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Supernatural faith, as St. Paul writes to the Romans, is when you don’t have any evidence, but still believe. For instance, when my grades in math are 55, 60, 45, and 27 out of a hundred, but still believe I can pass, that’s faith. It may be foolhardy, but it’s faith.
* * * A young man went out hiking in the mountain. He slipped over a precipice, and rolled down. It meant sure death, but fortunately he was able to grab the branch of a tree. Hanging precariously and the branch giving way, he prayed aloud, “Lord, if you are up there, save me!”
* * * A booming voice answered, “Yes, this is God.”
“Dear God, please help me,” said the man desperately.
“Yes, I’ll help you,” replied God. “But first, do you trust me?”
“Of course, Lord!” the man pleaded.
* * * “Then let go (of your hold)!” God said.
“I’m begging the Lord to save me but he tells me to let go.” He looked up again and hollered, “If there is anybody else up there...help!”
Poor guy! He could not accept God’s will so he changed loyalty.
* * * There are times when God tells us to “let go,” to trust him even when the situation looks hopeless. It can be the untimely death of a young son, a stagefour cancer, an unjust treatment, a financial crisis.
What’s my attitude when such trying moments strike?
* * * Or do I reflect that, perhaps, the fault lies in me as, for instance, I incurred lung cancer due to cigarette smoking? Or is our economic progress slow because of corrupt officials and leaders?
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“Letting go” means getting rid of our negative attitudes and practices that hamper personal and collective progress.
In the context of Easter, it means dying to our old bad traits and vices and rising to new life.
* * * DEATH. FR. RODRIGO ADVINCULA, 75, of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) passed away on April 4 of cerebral stroke.
His remains lie at the Villa Cristo Rey Retirement House in Christ the King Seminary compound on E. Rodriguez Boulevard, Quezon City. Interment is set is set on April 9 after the 3 p.m. Mass. REQUIESCAT IN PACE.
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