Of the Great Efficacy of This Practice of Putting Confidence in God for the Obtaining of Blessings at His Hands

THE blessed St. Cyprian, explaining what God said to the children of Israel: Every spot that your foot shall tread upon shall be yours (Deut. xi. 24), says: “Your foot is your confidence—pes vester spes vestra est; and as far as it shall go, so far shall go your receiving of favors from God. All shall be yours, so far as the foot of your confidence goes.” St. Bernard says the same. “If you have great confidence in God and hope great things of Him, great things will He grant you and do by your means; and if little, little. In the holy Gospel we read many examples which show this to us. That ruler of the synagogue who left his daughter dying, and when he came to Christ our Redeemer she was already dead, said: Lord, my daughter is now dead, but come, lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live (Matt. ix. 18). He had some faith and confidence, since he believed that Christ could raise his daughter from the dead; but he had only a little, since he thought it was necessary that He should go to the spot and lay His hand on her, and in that way he had confidence that she would live; and the Redeemer of the world did by him according to the measure of confidence that he had. He went there and found her dead, and took her by the hand and raised her. The other woman who had been suffering for twelve years from a flux of blood, and had spent all her substance on doctors, and they had not been able to cure her, came to Christ our Redeemer with a little more faith: for she said within herself: If I can touch but his garment, I shall be healed (Matt. ix. 21). She makes her way through the midst of the crowd, approaches, and touches the hem of His garment, and is healed at once. God dealt with her according to the faith and hope she had. But the centurion, with his paralytic servant, had more faith than either of them. He came to the Redeemer of the world and said to Him: “Lord, my servant is in bed palsied; but there is no need for Thee to go there to heal him, nor for him to come here to touch Thy garment; say but the word, and my servant shall be healed (Matt. viii. 8). While he remains there, Thou canst give command here, and he will be cured.” See what great faith! Jesus admired, and said to those about Him: Amen I say unto you, I have not found such faith in Israel (Matt. viii. 10). And, turning to the centurion, He said to him: According to thy faith be it done to thee. And the servant was healed that same hour (Matt. viii. 13). He had confidence in Jesus Christ that by His mere word He could work the cure from where He stood; and He did heal him from where He stood, by His mere word. You see how God deals with us according to the confidence that we have in Him, acting up to the prayer of the Royal Prophet, David: Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us as we have hoped in Thee (Psalm xxxii. 22). Deep as shall be the vessel of your confidence shall be also the amount of water that it shall draw, says St. Cyprian.

So it also fared with the Apostle St. Peter. Christ our Redeemer bade him come to Him on the waters; and so long as he had no fear, he walked on the surface of the sea as if it were dry land; and when he did begin to fear, seeing a strong wind getting up, at once he began to sink, and Christ reproached him for his little faith: Man of little faith, why didst thou doubt? (Matt. xiv. 31); giving him to understand that he was drowning because he got afraid and lost confidence. That is why it seems at times that we are drowning and perishing in temptations and afflictions and worry of affairs, because of the little confidence we have. Had we great confidence in God, He would help us and bring us well out of all these critical situations, and would do us many favors. When King Josaphat was much afraid of the Moabites and Ammonites, who were marching against the people of God, for the great multitude of their armies, God sent to say to him by a prophet: “Be not afraid of this multitude, for it is not your war, but God’s. It is not you that have to fight; I only wish you to keep up your courage and confidence, and you shall see the favor of heaven upon you” (II Chron. xx. 15,17). And forthwith they found it so; for while they kept quiet, God destroyed the army of the enemy, making them turn their arms against one another and slay one another.

Let us, then, consider how little God asks of us as a condition of giving us aid and victory over our enemies. So in the Ninetieth Psalm the Lord gives no other reason for protecting and delivering a man in time of tribulation than this, that he has hoped and confided in Him. Because he hath hoped in me, I will deliver him: I will protect him, because he hath known my power and goodness. St. Bernard makes marvelous exclamation on those words: “O most sweet liberality, never to be wanting to those who hope and have confidence in Him”’—Dulcissima liberalitas im se sperantibus non deesse. In thee, O Lord, have our fathers hoped, and thou hast delivered them: they had. recourse and cried to thee, and they were saved: they put their whole trust in thee, and were not confounded (Psalm xxi. 5-6). Whoever cried to God and put his trust in Him, and was not heard and succored by His Divine Majesty! Cast thine eyes on all nations and on all ages of the world, says the Wise Man, and thou wilt find that none hath hoped in God and been confounded (Ecclus. ii. 11-12). Who has ever called upon Him and been despised by Him?

And, further, there is another reason, of which we have already spoken at length, and therefore here we need but touch upon it; it is that, when we cease to trust in ourselves and put our whole confidence in God, we attribute all to God and give Him charge of the whole business, and so we strongly bind Him to do His own business and stand up for His honor. Lord, this business of the conversion of souls is Thine, and not ours; as for us, what part can we have in it, if Thou dost not move their hearts? Stand up, then, O Lord, for Thine own honor and do Thine own business. Those are marvelous words to this effect with which Josuah importuned God and did violence to Him for the liberation of his people. It is very well for us, O Lord, to be humbled and overturned by our enemies, since we have well deserved it; but what will become of thy great name? (Jos. vii. 9). What will the heathen say when they see Thy people destroyed and in captivity? They will say that Thou couldst not bring them to the Land of Promise. Stand up, then, O Lord, for Thine own honor. Not to us, but to thy name give glory (Psalm ecxiii. 1). We seek not honor and glory for ourselves; if we ask for it, it is for Thee. Of the Lord our God is justice and holiness, but to us is due shame and confusion to our face (Baruch i. 15). In every way, to have great confidence in the Lord is a sure means of making Him do us favors, for the great satisfaction which such confidence gives Him. The good pleasure of the Lord is upon them that fear him, and upon them that hope in his mercy (Psalm cxlvi. 11).

We who live under obedience have another very particular reason for having great confidence in the aid of the Lord attending upon our ministries. It is that He it is Who has ordered it and puts us to such work, and therefore gives us strength for what He orders and will draw us well out of it. Holy Writ relates that God commanded Moses to make the Tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant, and the mercy-seat that was to be over it, and the altar, and the table of shewbread, and many vessels besides that were needed for the service of the Tabernacle. And God gave the plan of it all, how it was to be, and the proportions to be observed, and added that, for the doing of all this well and in conformity with the plan laid down, He had chosen Beseleel and Ooliab, and given them knowledge and skill to know how to execute all possible designs in gold, silver, precious stones, brass, marble, and every sort of wood; and they would carry out right well all that He had told them (Exod. xxxi. 1-6). Now if to make a material tabernacle God was so careful to give infused knowledge to those artificers who were to execute the work, what will He do for the workers and ministers of the Gospel, who have to build and elaborate the spiritual tabernacle of souls, souls who are living temples of God and the dwelling of the Holy Ghost, and to widen and extend the house and kingdom of God? As the spiritual is more than the material and of greater consequence before God, so much greater confidence should we have that He will give us all that is necessary for doing well the work for which God has chosen us. So the holy Gospel says: “When you come before princes and emperors and the great ones of the world to answer and stand up for the honor of God, trouble not yourselves to think how you are to speak, for God will teach you then what you are to say, for it is not you who speak, but God Who speaks in you” (Matt. x. 19-20). J, says Christ our Redeemer, will give you utterance and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall be unable to resist or contradict (Luke xxi. 15). And that was well seen in the glorious Protomartyr St. Stephen, of whom it is said in the Acts of the Apostles (vi. 10), that all who disputed with him were unable to resist the spirit and wisdom that spoke in him.