Psalm 91:14
Because he cleaves to me in love,
I will deliver him;
I will protect him,
Because he knows my name.
 |
| Joseph's Dream Edward Jarmosiewicz |
What (Joseph) did was the clearest ‘obedience of faith.’ The Council teaches that the obedience of faith must be given to God as He reveals Himself . . .
. . . Joseph is a kind of reversal of the disobedience of Lucifer.
. . Lucifer doubted God’s goodness. Joseph trusted in God’s goodness. Lucifer
rejected God’s plan for humanity. Joseph accepted God’s plan for humanity.
In Saint Joseph, we find the model of perfect trust and obedience. He had every reason to fear what lay before him, but he heard the message of the angel and trusted. He knew God's ways and he followed them . . . We are invited to put everything on the line and radically trust that God is good, that He has a plan for us, (that His plan is much better than anything we can imagine for ourselves), and that following His ways will lead us along this path.
From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:
An Integrated Look at the Holy Family
(p. 22)
Bottaro and Settle
How does the devil tempt us to doubt God's plan working in our life?
- By distracting us with the vanities and comforts of the world. By tricking us into preferring these passing things, we focus on what we don't have (in particular, the things others have that we don't). This can lead to envy, self-hatred, anxiety, depression, and even despair. Moreover, we become blind to the opportunities to know and love Christ and to share Christ with the members of His body.
- Because we focus on what we don't have, forgetting that life itself is an undeserved gift and how overabundantly God's mercy flows and how He runs to be with us, we lose our trust in God the Father. We begin to doubt whether He really cares for us, that He will truly provide for us. We suspect that maybe He is the one trying to trick us or deprive us somehow. All of this doubt, when we ought to know deep down how self-deceptive and confused our very hearts can be. And that we believe in a God who created us and knows us better than we can even know ourselves.
- Satan (the Great Accuser) wins his battle when he tricks us into accusing our loving God.
What are we afraid of?
- Appearing foolish or naive in front of other people. Being misunderstood.
- That God doesn't actually love us. That we're not good enough to be loved by Him and somehow have to prove or earn our worthiness
- That God is secretly a tyrant and that by surrendering to Him we will lose the things that we have become attached to or seek (pleasure, security, esteem, wealth, status, admiration)
What are our greatest temptations against faith?
- That somehow we are being lied to or deceived
- That believing will bring on hardships and fearing the hardships more than we love and trust God
- That getting to Heaven will somehow be unpleasant drudgery all the way through; that we're giving up something seemingly valuable for something promised that we can't see and find it hard to even imagine
No comments:
Post a Comment