[Note to readers: This essay was written many years ago, shortly after my reception into the Catholic church. It remains here as a testimony to my life’s journey, and is not intended to urge anyone to adopt any particular religious worldview. As my thoughts and opinions are constantly evolving and may not be identical with my past or future thoughts, each reader is encouraged to be brave in finding inspiration from all sources in order to find the best paths in his/her life journey.]
On Trust
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3-4)
A common feature of childhood everywhere is trust.
Children trust in the goodness of this world, in the unlimited brightness of their future, and in the goodness of those around them.
We call this childhood trust innocence or naïveté.
As we grow up, we gradually lose this childhood innocence.
We learn that there are many deceitful and untrustworthy people out there.
We learn that this world, though containing much beauty, is also a dangerous place.
We learn that we have only a limited time to live and enjoy our life in this world, so we do everything in our power to maximize our own potential and grab all the opportunities that come our way.
We learn that many good people, seemingly through sheer bad luck, become the victims of horrendous crimes, accidents and misfortunes.
We smolder with anger, horror and fear at the injustices of fate, and do everything in our power to protect ourselves.
We protect ourselves through our wealth, through our friends and connections, through our reputation and good works. We protect ourselves through our insurance, our citizenship (if we’re fortunate enough to live in relatively safe and developed countries), various anti-virus software, and through a general attitude of wariness that we constantly carry with us everywhere.
“Time is short, opportunities are easily lost to other competitors, and the world is a dangerous place,” this attitude of wariness tells us every moment of every day.
Certainly, we often feel the need to relax and escape our own self-enforced wariness, and we do this through pleasure and enjoyment.
Some people enjoy sampling delectable meals, others enjoy listening to beautiful music, still others enjoy going to the movies, or travelling, etc.
Ever since the beginning of human civilization, people have sought to find peace amidst so much danger and wariness through various philosophies and religions. In the West, we have the Stoics and Ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle; in the East, we have various schools of thought such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and the like. Even today, their wisdom still resonate in many human hearts, for people seek peace and joy amidst constant danger and wariness primarily through two channels: pleasure and higher thought. In the realm of “higher thought”, today’s world offers various mind-calming techniques. We have yoga, tai chi, the wisdom of various Eastern philosophies, as well as the solace that can be obtained by reciting and believing certain passages of religious text. Whether it be a Buddhist Sutra, a Christian/Mormon/ Jehovah’s witness Bible, a Muslim Koran, or a Hindu text, any of these religious texts undoubtedly carry passages that, if believed with one’s whole heart, have the potential to alleviate various worries, infuse joy into the heart, and mitigate one’s sufferings by pointing the mind towards eternity.
Such is the condition of humanity in this world.
It is very shocking, therefore, that our Lord advocates an entirely different way: A return back into childhood, by being born again to a new, infinitely loving Father, who has prepared an inheritance for us from all eternity.
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God[1].
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God[2].
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God[3].
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord[4].
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins[5].
Whenever our Lord gives a command—be it “do not worry” or “love your enemies”—He always gives one and only one reason for it: Remember who you are, you are children of the Heavenly Father, prepared for everlasting glory; in love, in speech, in conduct, therefore, imitate Him.
Our Lord never said, “Don’t worry, it’s bad for your health and is of no use.”
Rather, He said,
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well[6].
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows[7].
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him![8]
And, even in a more mind-blowing manner, our Lord said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous[9].
Do we realize what He’s truly saying? He did not say, “Love your enemies, because that’s a prerequisite of following Me; that is what you must do if you want to go to Heaven.” Rather, He’s advocating a totally new philosophy: The philosophy of Eternity.
At every command and injunction, our Lord and his apostles said, “Do you realize who you are? Do you realize what it means to be children of God? You will reign with Him for all eternity, as well as have authority over many dominions[10]. How can you be prepared to do that, if you do not learn to love as your Father does?”
When the believers at Corinth were bickering over trivial things and practicing egregious sexual immorality[11], St Paul the Apostle didn’t reprimand them by saying, “Shame on you! God will punish you with many disasters and send you to Hell for your many sins!” Rather, he reminded them of who they truly are:
If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life![12]
So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God[13].
By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?[14]
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies[15].
From the viewpoint of Eternity, therefore, everything that happens in our earthly lives is simply a preparation for our eternal Destiny—that of reigning with Christ and living in loving communion with all citizens of that everlasting Kingdom. As St Paul emphatically stated:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified[16].
And then, in triumph, he continued to say:
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord[17].
In fact, the apostles often made such similar statements in their letters to the churches. Below are some examples:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God[18].
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.[19]
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge[20].
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority[21].
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.[22]
Seen from this perspective, therefore, everything that happens to us is merely a preparation for our glorious destinies in that everlasting Kingdom. This is how the saints are able to rejoice in their sufferings[23], considering it pure joy when they encounter trials and temptations[24]. They know that their heavenly Father loves them infinitely, constantly and solicitously, that the very hairs of their heads are all numbered[25], and that they are the very members of Christ’s body[26]. And when is ever a part of the body suffering without the Head knowing and feeling it very keenly also? So we can live with the full conviction that God himself is participating in all our joys and sorrows, and it is through full trust in Him that our crosses become easy and light[27].
This trust, however, does not come easily. Living in this world naturally predisposes us towards mistrust, for this world is filled with selfish and untrustworthy people. Therefore, we are naturally predisposed to protect ourselves from the vagaries of fate and the vicissitudes of the world around us. What’s more, the Original sin was a sin of distrust, a mistrust of God’s goodness: When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it[28]; in spite of God’s injunction against it[29]. It is very clear that our first parents distrusted the goodness of God’s plan for them, and that this distrust incited them to act against His express command.
In a similar way, the Israelites whom God led out of the desert found it impossibly difficult to trust in this invisible God who claimed to love them and had their best interests at heart. Their masters in Egypt had been cruel, and they had been enslaved for more than four centuries. All of their earthly experiences predisposed them towards mistrust and distrust of all authority. How could they surrender themselves to the Lord and trust fully in His goodness and love?
And yet, full trust in the Lord’s tenderness and goodness, at all times and in every way, is a prerequisite for Heaven. As our Lord Himself has said,
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven[30]
Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it[31].
I am thoroughly convinced that this full surrender and childlike trust are impossible without God’s grace. This world is constantly bombarding us with the evolutionary message that we, human beings, are nothing more than intelligent animals whose existences do not matter much in the universe. Therefore, we must do everything in our power to ensure our own survival, pleasure and self worth. Knowing that the future is uncertain, and that time is short, we must make use of all the opportunities that come our way. It is little wonder that our modern world, with its technological advances and seemingly limitless opportunities, has simply become a world where many people feel disregarded, ignored, unloved and unwanted. Many people feel that unless they do everything in their power to distinguish themselves from the average person, their lives do not really matter. We must constantly strive to be heard, to be loved, to be understood, to feel that our lives are worth something. It is little wonder that this world of ours is so filled with prejudice and indifference. Beneath the façade of technological sophistication, so many people feel neglected, ignored, unloved, unwanted and alone.
Our Lord, however, presents a radically different message. According to the Christian worldview, one soul is worth more than the entire universe. It is of such great worth that Christ Himself dares to suffer and die for it.
One of the saints says that Jesus would have done everything he did and suffered everything he suffered even if you were the only person who had sinned, just for you. More than that, he did! This is no if; this is fact. His loving eyes saw you from the Cross. Each of his five wounds were lips speaking your name[32].
Talking about angels, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen said,
“Why does everyone have a guardian angel? Because every individual is worth more than the entire universe. Below us there are only species, but when it comes to man, each one is of sovereign worth. Hence each is assigned a guardian…”[33]
Scriptures confirm this. In Luke 15, our Lord spoke two parables that illustrate the painstaking effort with which our Lord took to enfold each soul in His tender and infinite Love:
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” [34]
If a single soul’s repentance can cause great rejoicing in the presence of the immortal angels, we can also imagine that our sins provoke the tears of the Almighty and the citizens of Heaven. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption[35],” Scriptures say. Indeed, why do you think is the Sacred Heart of Jesus—burning with infinite love for souls—always portrayed as being encircled by a crown of thorns? Similarly, the Immaculate heart of Mary is always portrayed as being pierced by a sword. Contrary to popular opinion, the inhabitants of Heaven are not merely feasting up above in merry and ignorant fashion, totally unconcerned with the tragedies of this world. Neither do they simply watch us as objects of pity, derision or observation, the way we usually do when we watch the sufferings of our fellowmen. No! The angels and inhabitants of Heaven fully participate in all our joys and sufferings, for the Incarnation of Christ has made it so. We are the very members of His Body. When a part of their Lord’s Body is injured or in pain, can the angels simply look on unconcerned? Do they not make haste to help, defend and offer prayerful intercession to the Almighty? Indeed they do! Why else do we pray to angels and to saints, if they do not fully participate in our joys and sufferings?
Our lives in this world are a constant battle[36]: a tug of war between the Heavenly viewpoint (the way of the Spirit) and the earthly viewpoint (the way of the flesh). The Spirit reminds us of the infinite Love that has saved us, that constantly pursues us, protects us and envelops us, and that will surely lead us to Eternal Life. The sinful nature, on the other hand, constantly tells us that we are unloved, unwanted and abandoned, that we are worth no more than dust mites in this great universe, and that unless we do something to distinguish ourselves from others and prove our self worth, our lives do not really matter.
Which voice are we going to listen to? Let us continually hold on to Jesus and trust in His infinite Love!
Shanghai, PRC, June 2017
[1] 1 Peter 1:23
[2] John 1:12-13
[3] Ephesians 5:1-2
[4] Ephesians 5:8-10
[5] Colossians 1:13-14
[6] Matthew 6:31-33
[7] Luke 12:6-7
[8] Matthew 7:9-11
[9] Matthew 5:43-45
[10] Revelations 2:26-27, 3:21; 2 Timothy 2:12; Matthew 25:14-30
[11] 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, 5:1-2, 6:1.
[12] 1 Cor 6:1-3
[13] 1 Cor 3:21-23
[14] 1 Cor 6:14-15a
[15] 1 Cor 6:19-20
[16] Romans 8:28-30
[17] Romans 8:31-39
[18] Ephesians 3:16-18
[19] 1 Peter 1:3-12
[20] Colossians 2:2-3
[21] Colossians 2:9-10
[22] Ephesians 1:15-23
[23] Romans 5:3-5
[24] James 1:2-4
[25] Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7
[26] Ephesians 1:23, 5:30; Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:27
[27] Matthew 11:28-30, John 16:33, Romans 15:13, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18.
[28] Genesis 3:6
[29] Genesis 2:17, 3:3.
[30] Matthew 18:3-4
[31] Mark 10:14-15, Luke 18:16-17
[32] From the article “Love” by Peter Kreeft. Source: http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/love.html
[33] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBiuYd4lHH4 (See 18:25 onwards)
[34] Luke 15:4-10
[35] Ephesians 4:30
[36] Galatians 5:16-25, Ephesians 5:10-18, Romans 7:21-25, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.