“Standing firm, in trust, placing our faith in the Lord, entirely!”

(Based on 2 Cor 12:1-10 and Mt 6:24-34 – Saturday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time)

There is a French word named “sabot”.

It is a word which means a ‘wooden shoe’.

The English word ‘sabatoge’ comes from this root word ‘sabot’.

According to one theory, ‘sabatoge’ was the practice of throwing a wooden shoe or wooden clogs into a machinery (particularly power looms) to stop the work.

The word “sabotage” therefore has come to mean ‘any attempt to hinder production or spoil a product or mess up a plan’.

In our lives, there is a ‘sabot’ – a ‘wooden shoe’ that is often cast into our souls…
… to hinder us from accomplishing the plan of God
… and to stop our work for the Kingdom of God.

That ‘sabot’ is called worry…
… and it is thrown by Satan!

It clogs our peaceful relation with the Lord and disrupts our life of joy and harmony.

In the Gospel of the Day, Jesus warns us regarding this device of ‘sabotage’ – worry – that we often encounter and experience in our lives.

The Lord firstly invites us to have a clear conviction regarding our loyalty: to God or to mammon.
He says, “No one can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6: 24)

We can be faithful and committed to only one of them.

To whom have we pledged our loyalty and allegiance…?
… to the True and Living God who alone is worthy of every honour and who alone is able to bless our lives with true joy and happiness….?
… or to false and make-believe effigies of money, wealth and possessions which may give momentary satisfactions but fail miserably in rendering true peace of mind…?

When we have made this pledge and commitment to the Lord, He invites us to “live” this commitment.

One of the strongest signs of “living” this commitment is to “trust” in Him!

And the external sign of “trusting” in Him is to not get into the vice of “anxiety”

Venerable Fulton Sheen says, “All worry is atheism…
… because it is want ot trust of God!”

St Francis de Sales says that, “The greatest thing to befall a soul, after sin…
… is anxiety!”

Jesus asks this very practical and logical question:
“Can any of you, by worrying, add a single moment to your life-span?” (Mt 6: 27)

All of us, surely, as we live our lives have our quota of tensions and troubles.

All of us, without doubt, as we discharge our duties, will have our share of pressures.

But do we let these tensions and troubles and pressures to get converted to needless “worries” and undue “anxieties”?

Humans, as we are, stresses and strains are sure to come our way…

But, does my Christian Faith help me to convert such circumstances to occasions to trust in God deeper and build our faith stronger?

For a person of deep faith, tense situations…
… are turned into moments of seeking God deeper and experiencing His providence.

For a person of higher trust, worrying circumstances…
… are transformed to occasions of cherishing God’s presence and developing an approach of stronger reliance and dependence.

The evil one will no doubt hurl the “sabot” – shoes – of worry and anxiety on us

He does know that discouragements are an easy trap for us to stumble in our life of faith
He does know that anxieties are easy snares to corner us with fretfulness and fear.

The evil one seeks to sabotage our desire to seek the Lord and work for His Kingdom

The evil one tries to sabotage our good intentions to be a messenger of His Kingdom

Do we succumb to those attacks of “anxiety” and “worry?”
… or do we stand firm – in trust – placing our faith in the Lord, entirely?

When the wooden blocks of worries are hurled on us…
… let us seek the help of the wood of the Cross – with Christ Crucified as our strength…

And boldly declare, with hope, “I seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness!”

God Bless! Live Jesus!

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Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism:
MOTHER MARY’S VIRGINITY

From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary…
… affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived “by the Holy Spirit without human seed”.
The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own.
Thus St. Ignatius of Antioch at the beginning of the second century says: You are firmly convinced about our Lord, who is truly of the race of David according to the flesh, Son of God according to the will and power of God, truly born of a virgin…

… He was truly nailed to a tree for us in his flesh under Pontius Pilate… He truly suffered, as He is also truly risen! (Cf. CCC # 496)