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March 20, 2020
It is apropos that an old Chinese proverb declares, “May you live in interesting times!” Indeed. We are living in both interesting and scary times. However, faith gives us an antidote to fear and to worry—an antidote that is both practical and spiritual.
Did you know that in the Old Testament the statement “Do Not Be Afraid” appears 365 times? Maybe that number signifies a hope for each day of the year that we are to have faith and trust in God, and that the meaning enshrined in the name of God, Emmanuel, which means God is with us, is a reminder that we do not walk alone in this faith journey but that our loving and protective God is with us in all things, in all times. The antidote mentioned above is that we as Christian faithful are called to distinguish between “worry” and “concern.” Unlike concern, worry is a futile effort that drains a person as it is a process that does not benefit the individual but makes the person even more miserable. Concern is when an issue arrests the attention of an individual where he would begin to care and feel distressed but seeks a solution to the issue. Worry, on the other hand, is when an individual feels uneasy or anxious about something or someone. Worrying is considered as a negative quality because it only puts the individual in a worse position where he would be thinking over and over about a particular issue, without addressing the possible solutions.
Faith asks us to have trust in God and all His Providential care; it asks us to look into our relationship with God, one that He began by calling us into , creation out of His great love for each of us, a created relationship that He redeemed by His Son’s Passion, death and Resurrection, and a relationship that He now and forever shall provide for by the gifts of His
Holy Spirit to guide, to defend and to educate us in and through faith. In these trying times, when we are homebound and limited in our personal freedoms, let us remember that we are not alone—we are united as one nation, under God, a nation that when we trust in the Lord
we shall feel His love through the concern and generosity of others and shall know that He is with us. We shall hear in the words and see in the actions of neighbors and friends the Hope of our loving God, “Do Not Be Afraid” for the Lord Your God is with you.
Let us be in prayer together and for one another, asking the Lord to bless and protect us and
to keep us ever in His Providential care, knowing that all shall be made well.