A FAITHFUL GOD WHO DOES NOT DISAPPOINT

19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

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When I was in high school, my aunt was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I remember my father gathering us, his family, to tell us the sad news. The doctor gave my aunt some years to live. We came together in prayer—and miraculously, she survived.

Twenty years later, the same aunt was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and given only months to live. Because of her vulnerable condition, she was placed on oral chemotherapy. The months turned into years, and the years are still counting. She is still alive. Glory be to God!

The Wisdom books in the Bible address difficult existential and spiritual questions. One question that troubles many is this: why do good people suffer while the wicked seem to prosper? Does the just God really care? In the First Reading, the Book of Wisdom encourages God’s people to hold on to Him, even amid suffering and persecution. Faith is the confidence that in the end, God will set all things right.

The Letter to the Hebrews, in the Second Reading, describes faith as “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” It recalls the example of Abraham, a man of faith who trusted God when He called him to leave his homeland and security in his old age. God rewarded this faith by granting him a son, an heir, even though Abraham was well past the normal age and Sarah was barren. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac became the ultimate expression of obedient faith.

In the Gospel, Jesus exhorts His disciples to seek security not in earthly things that wear out or can be stolen, but in “money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.” True faith finds its treasure in sharing with the needy and being responsible stewards of what the Lord has entrusted to us—thus storing up treasure in heaven while working for God’s kingdom here on earth.

Pope Benedict XVI teaches that faith is “choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with Him” (Porta Fidei, no. 10). The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that faith is believing and trusting “because of the authority of God Himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived” (CCC 156). We offer our lives to this faithful God, who embraces us, opens the doors of grace for us, and inspires us toward renewal and conversion.

This Jubilee Year invites us, as pilgrims of hope, to trust in the faithful God who assures us that “the storms that buffet us will never prevail, for we are firmly anchored in the hope born of grace, which enables us to live in Christ and to overcome sin, fear and death” (Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit, no. 25).

Our family has witnessed the healing power of this faithful God in my aunt’s life. We can “hope against hope” (Rom 4:18)—holding firmly to the belief that something will happen, even when it seems unlikely. Truly, as St. Paul declares, “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5).