“Trust me! I give you my word!”
Whether you believe the person speaking or not depends a whole lot on who they are, doesn’t it?
If you know that that friend or parent or coworker is honest, reliable, able to come through, and has your best interest in mind then maybe you’ll lend them your trust. But if not?
I know I’d take a second thought.
How much we trust God says a lot about what we believe about him. Do we truly believe he is honest? Reliable? Able? Has our best interest at heart?
In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we are presented with two stories of people being asked to take God on his word. The first is Zechariah. The second is Mary.
After the angel Gabriel proclaims God’s plans to them, both Zechariah and Mary wonder how this could be possible—Zechariah because of his and Elizabeth’s old age, Mary because of her virginity.
Gabriel’s response to Zechariah’s question is a rebuke: “Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.” And indeed Zechariah is mute until John the Baptist is born to fulfill the angel’s message. Not so with Mary. What was different about her response?
We get a clue in this week’s Gospel.
Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out in praise when Mary comes to her, saying:
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.
Unlike Zechariah, Mary trusted. She believed the angel when he said, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” She accepted the message with total confidence that the one who spoke the word was trustworthy.
I often struggle to trust God. To believe that he knows better than I do. That he knows what’s going to happen or how things will work out. I’m much more often like Zechariah than like Mary.
But the one who makes the promise is trustworthy. We can take God at his word. Jesus’ coming makes that clear.
May we all be blessed like Mary for believing that what is spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled.
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Andrea Jackson is a Content Creator and Ministry Consultant at the Evangelical Catholic. The Evangelical Catholic’s mission is to equip Catholics to live out the Great Commission. Learn more.
