The Virtue Of Trust : In Season And Out Of Season

Introduction Why is trust such an important attitude, virtue, or manner of acting in our life? My conjecture is trust is more a manner of intuiting who is right for our life rather than choosing the right thing for our life. I mean we trust in those who we know and experience rather than in those whom we know. But how do we distinguish between experiencing someone rather than knowing someone? Aren't they similar or the same? They are similar in one way, but different in another. Knowledge and experience are similar because they both are formed by our intellectual grasp, but they are different because while knowledge can be essentially identifying someone or something as real, experience and meaning come into play when we affirm to ourself that we can identify with that person or thing as being meaningful to our life. In other words, not every person we recognize as a member of our circle becomes a friend on an intimate level. It is the encounter with the person(s) in our life that we can totally surrender our existence that we learn to trust. Do we enter into relationships of trust on an intimate level often? It is true we enter into relationships of trust daily and frequently, but not as true that all those relationships we accept as being frequent are at the same time intimate levels of trust. On the other hand, even the most common actions in our life can be experienced as the most meaningful event when experience on the level of intimate trust. We need only look to the example of St. Therese of Lisieux to realize that the least of her actions or sufferings took on the most significant acts because of the love with which she performed them. Even while in the midst of the greatest suffering and darkness her trust in God seemed to never waver. I believe this is not a common expression of religious trust. If it were then more religious persons would be called Doctors of the Church. Let us turn to another more profound example of trust in the life of the Son of God. While Jesus was dying on the Cross he experienced the greatest of agonies and total abandonment by God, yet he trusted completely. In other words, what follows the "My God, My God why have you abandoned me," was the "Into your hands I commend my Spirit." Trust is this ability to see beyond the suffering of the body and soul in order to perceive and rely upon the God who is behind it all. In this sense, knowledge and intimate relationship with the other are blended in the act of love and trust. Since love seeks to remain united with the beloved, while trust leans upon the help of that love to see you thru. In the case of Jesus, we can with assurance realize the trust as being fruitful, since on the third day he rose from the dead and appeared to the Apostles and hundreds of others in testimony of his loving trust in the Father. In the case of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Church began to experience the "shower of rose" she promised to send as a result of her sacrificial death of love and total consecration of herself in love for the God and the Church. We can see this same trust in our everyday life.

• | Author: Clinton LeFort, Stefan Kunze
• | Publisher: Independently Published
• | Publication Date: Jul 24, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 162 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1717890717
• | ISBN-13: 9781717890719