Trusting in God

2nd Week of Easter – Saturday (4 May 2019)

Acts 6:1-7. John 6:16-21.

The earliest Christian communities too had their problems as we see in today’s first reading. “As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” Following Christ does not mean that we will be free from all problems. But it does mean that we will be able to deal with them effectively only when we allow God into the picture. We will be able to deal with our problems only with a spiritual view.

It is really interesting to see that the Apostles chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, and others for the work of distribution. The Apostles laid their hands on them—gave them the Holy Spirit—to do their material work. To do some “material” work they were given spiritual strength.

We may think that to deal with material things it would be enough to have material strength and intelligence. We may say that to deal with the world we need mere worldly intelligence. But today’s first reading gives us a clue to change our attitudes if needed. We need God’s Spirit to live in this world in a better way. Without God and His attitudes we can’t be impartial or pure in our motives even while doing material work.

God is needed in our life, whatever work or job we may be doing.

The lesson from today’s gospel is something similar: even when it seems like everything is going against us, we need to trust in Jesus who can walk on water. Nothing is impossible for him. Perhaps our problems will give us the light and strength to see God who is going to be there with us in a way we never expected. And before we know it, we will have arrived at our destination.

“Don’t be afraid. It is I.”