Monday, February 17, 2020

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(James 1:1-11; Mark 8:11-13)

The person was distraught.  She said that she prayed for a long time for something that she never received.  She also prayed with faith which today’s first reading finds requisite for obtaining favors.  What could be the problem?

Perhaps it is her perspective.  She called on God not unlike the Pharisees call on Jesus in today’s gospel.  They request a sign as a test of his divine commission.  But did they not hear of the massive feeding he has just made?  Is not the person in our case aware that the universe and especially humans are testimony to God’s goodness? 

God wants us to trust in Him.  This may seem naïve or perhaps irrational.  It is difficult for those who have been bitten by human deception.    Yet God is unlike humans even though He became one of us.  Trust goes beyond faith or at least includes within it the sense that God will not fail to bring us happiness.