Trust in Christ

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We are well into Lent at this point, and if you are like me, you have hit some bumps in the road during this Lenten journey.  It is not always easy to keep up our Lenten promises.  I will be the first to admit that I sometimes find it very difficult to stick with the sacrifices I promised to make during Lent, and I have a feeling that I am not the only one in that situation.  However, we know from Sunday’s readings that the Lord is close to us in our struggles.  He hears our prayers and calls us to come back to Him.

Coming back to God.  That is what Lent is about.  Lent is the time each year when God calls us back to Him.  He calls us to repentance.  He calls us to reorient our lives towards Him.  God knows that this is a radical call, and He is patient with us.  He knows that we will often fall and struggle.  As we hear in the first reading, God comes to us in our struggles and difficulties.  When the Israelites were being persecuted in Egypt, God revealed Himself to Moses and delivered his people from the hand of the Egyptians (Exodus 3: 7-8).  He was close to the Israelites in the sufferings.  Likewise, God is close to each of us when we struggle and suffer.

God did not stop with the Israelites.  His love for us is too great.  God loves each one of us so much that He sent His only Son to bear the weight of our sins and die for them.  That is what Lent is calling us to remember.  When we take on a Lenten sacrifice, we are uniting our sacrifice with that of Christ on His Cross.  In Christ, God goes beyond just hearing the afflictions of His people and supernaturally aiding them, as He did with Moses and the Israelites.  In Christ, God becomes one of us.  He walks with us.  He goes through our struggles and temptations.  Then, He willingly suffered and died for us, and through that, He calls us to come back to Him.

If you are like me, you know the story of the Cross.  You know in your mind that Jesus became man, lived with us, suffered for us, died for us, and rose again.  You also know that Lent is the time each year when we are called to sacrifice and make room in our hearts for Christ.  Again, if you are like me, you know all of this, but you find it difficult to accept it in your heart and stay faithful to your Lenten promises.  Thankfully, “the Lord is kind and merciful” (Psalm 103: 8a).  He sees our struggles and is close to us during them.

Often times, we forget that God is close to us in our struggles, and we wonder, “how could God be patient with me when I screw up so often?”  In the Gospel, Jesus speaks directly to this fear and doubt.  Jesus speaks to us in a parable, and He calls to mind a land owner who wants to cut down a fig tree that is not fruitful.  In the parable, the man’s gardener convinces the land owner to spare the tree for one more year and fertilize it.  The man agrees, and the tree is spared (Luke 13: 6-9).

The parable is about our relationship with God.  We are the fig tree, and Jesus is the gardener.  Often times, we do not bear fruit in our lives.  We struggle to turn to God and place our trust in Him.  In those times when we struggle with our faith, Jesus is like the gardener, interceding for us and helping us grow.  When we are going through difficult times or cave to temptations, Jesus is there taking care of us, so that we may be fruitful and faithful in the future.

In Lent, we are called to take on a sacrifice to unite ourselves to Christ.  We are also called to place our complete trust in Christ, so that He can help us grow in our faith.  When we slip up on our Lenten promises and our faith is lacking, we must remember that Jesus is not far away.  Rather, in those moments of doubt and struggle, Jesus is the closest to us.  Like a gardener with a sick plant, Jesus is close by, tending to our needs, and feeding us, so we may “bear fruit in the future” (Luke 13: 9).  All He asks is for us to trust Him and accept His help.  If you have struggled with your Lenten sacrifices or had moments of doubt this Lent, like me, remember that Jesus is close by and ready to bring you back to Him.

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