What are
your greatest fears? Can you take a piece of paper to write down your fears? I have
heard people say that it is wrong to have fears but the truth is that our fears
are our greatest treasures. Until we face our fears squarely, we would never
know what God is capable of doing. Life is classroom, fear is the examination
script on which is written test questions for our promotion to the next level.
Inability to face your fears can be likened to a student who refuses to come to
class on examination day. What happens? He remains in that class forever.
Abraham
had every reason to fear when he was told to sacrifice Isaac but he went ahead
to tie the boy up on the altar. He wanted to see that lies on the other side of
his fear. Dear friends, life’s greatest blessings are on the other side of our
fears. Let us begin to use our fears to our advantage.
The key to
conquering fear is Faith. It is with faith that a student goes to the hall on
examination day. Faith makes us believe that the questions no matter how tough
are not above us – that God is greater than any problem we can possibly think
of.
Faith makes
us relax even when others are panicking. Mind you, being relaxed is not the
same thing as spiritual laxity. That Jesus was asleep during a storm did not
mean he was asleep all through the day. He was such a prayerful person that he
would wake very early in the morning to pray and at times pray all through the
night. When we pray like Jesus, we can afford to relax because even the things
that are about to happen will be somehow revealed to us and then, we are able
to see the bigger picture and look beyond our petty challenges. When you put
everything in God’s hands, you start seeing the hand of God in everything –
even those things you consider as difficulties or problems.
We remember
St. Thomas Aquinas today. He was a man gifted with intelligence and wisdom, a
scholar to the core, a philosopher to philosophers, a theologian of great
magnitude, a man whose unshakable Faith in God led him to discover five perfectly
logical proofs of God’s existence also known as the Five Ways. Thomas Aquinas
is to the Church what the seminary is to a priest. He was not just an
intellectual, he was a deeply spiritual person – qualities you hardly find
combined in a single person.
Let us
Pray: Lord Jesus, may my faith be like that of Abraham. Amen.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith.
It is well with you. God bless you. (Saturday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time. Bible
Study: Hebrews 11, 2 to 19 and Mark 4, 35 to 41).
Fr. Abu.
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