{"id":90,"date":"2010-02-15T11:10:43","date_gmt":"2010-02-15T16:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=90"},"modified":"2010-02-15T11:10:43","modified_gmt":"2010-02-15T16:10:43","slug":"doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/doubt\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s first reading <\/a>(Monday-6th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II) comes from James 1:1-11<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 James speaks of perseverance and doubt.\u00a0 We must\u00a0persevere in faith<\/span><\/span> without doubt.<\/p>\n

It is easier said than done.<\/p>\n

When life is going well our faith is n<\/span><\/span>ot challenged.\u00a0 It is in times of challenge and difficult that we found out just how strong our faith it.\u00a0 It is in difficult times that we are called to persevere<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In good times we may take God for granted.\u00a0 Or in good times we might say we did everything ourselves without help from other people or God.\u00a0 Yet, when times become difficult we might wonder why God isn’t “fixing everything.”\u00a0 We might take credit for the good but then blame God for the bad.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u00a0persevered<\/span> in faith<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 Jesus was arrested, beaten, scourged, and hung upon the Cross for us.\u00a0 Through all of that he\u00a0persevered<\/span> in faith<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 Some might what to say of course he persevered<\/span> because he is the Son of God.\u00a0 It wasn’t all that easy for him.\u00a0 Remember the story of the ‘Agony in the Garden’ (Matthew 26:36-46<\/a>, Mark 14:32-42<\/a>, Luke 22:39-46<\/a>).\u00a0 Jesus did not want to die.<\/p>\n

Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done (Luke 22:42<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and the passage tells us that<\/p>\n

He prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood (Luke 22:44<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus did not want to die yet he persevered<\/span> in his faith<\/span><\/span> in our Father’s plan.\u00a0 Did he doubt?\u00a0 Mark 15:34<\/a> gives us the final words of Jesus as<\/p>\n

My God, my God why have you forsaken me?\u00a0 (cf. Matthew 27:46<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet Luke’s Gospel has the final words of Jesus as<\/p>\n

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus was both human and divine.\u00a0 In his humanity he had doubt.\u00a0 In his divinity he trusted in the Father and offered his spirit.<\/p>\n

I would love to say I have no doubt in my faith.\u00a0 However, we can all have some doubt.\u00a0 I remember thinking when my mother was dying about how the Lord was taking care of her.\u00a0 Did the Lord cure her?\u00a0 No, but I believe He did take care of her.<\/p>\n

The way I like to look at doubt is that I have no doubt<\/em> that the Lord will take care of me (and all his people).\u00a0 However, I do doubt at times that he will do it the way I want<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0 I don’t believe this is a lack of fai<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 Rather, it is an acknowledgement that God knows better than me.\u00a0 I may find it hard to know how God is present in difficult times but He is.\u00a0\u00a0When things do not go the way I want, I hold on to (persevere\u00a0in) my fai<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span> trusting in God.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s first reading (Monday-6th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II) comes from James 1:1-11.\u00a0\u00a0 James speaks of perseverance and doubt.\u00a0 We must\u00a0persevere in faith without doubt. It is easier said than done. When life is going well our faith is not challenged.\u00a0 It is in times of challenge and difficult that we found out just …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Doubt’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sMTPk-doubt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}