By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo
Trust means reliance or confidence in a person. It is confidence in a person’s goodness that we would not be hurt or failed by that person. Or it is the reliance on that person’s word that he or she would fulfill his or her promise. In Scripture God is asking us to trust Him. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) But can we really trust God? Let’s test God’s reliability by going over the criteria of how we trust a human person.
Trust is something that needs to be earned. We just don’t trust everyone we meet. If someone claims to be a doctor for example and is applying to work in a hospital, the hospital does not just automatically accept that applicant doctor and give him a patient right away to look after. The hospital needs to look at the job resume or job credentials of that applicant doctor and look at his academic background, where did he finish his medical education, other hospitals or clinics he worked with, and references who can vouch for the character of that applicant doctor. Reliable character references usually are the Human Resource heads of where that person use to work. Once these job application requirements are submitted, the hospital would now have an idea of who this applicant is, and what are his qualifying skills.
But it does not end with the job application requirements. Later on, after getting hired, the hospital has to find out who this newly hired doctor is, his colleagues at work has to interact with him and get their impression whether this freshly hired doctor is a good doctor and a good person at the same time. If he is competent, and has good moral integrity, that his co-workers should be able to say, that Dr. so and so does not just have a good resume but is really a skilled doctor and good person with whom we can entrust patients with. The reverse could also be true. If after getting the job, this doctor is always late for work, is disrespectful to his patients and to people he works with, constantly makes mistakes and even tries to hides those mistakes, then his coworker would say, this is a terrible doctor and we don’t even know how he was able to graduate from a medical school.
How about God’s trustworthiness? First, does God have a resume of accomplishments? Yes, we can say that God is skilled because He is the creator of heaven and earth. No one else is a creator. This would mean God is all-powerful and can make all things or can make all events happen. This would be God’s competence claim or equivalent to being a skilled doctor who knows how to heal his patients. Second, is God a good God and not just a skilled God? He created us humans to have a share of His happiness partially in this world and fully in the next world to come if we accept and cooperate in His offering of salvation. He redeemed us from our sins through the Cross, even after having failed Him and would give us all the chance to do our part in that work of salvation, for salvation is both our God’s work and our response. God is good just basing from what we see and experience in creation, for He provides everything we need to live such as water, and food, the beauty of the universe plus the joy of interacting with other creatures both humans and animals.
Furthermore, God is trustworthy because He fulfills His promises. God has proven his faithfulness in the Old Testament that no matter how much the Chosen People, Israel has been unfaithful to the covenant God has established with them by sinning and worshiping other gods so many times, God never abandoned them. In the New Testament, God’s new covenant with us is through His Son’s Body and Blood and we are even more assured of His faithfulness and His trustworthiness because it is His Son that is the guarantor of that promise in the Holy Eucharist.
Does God have character reference or persons who can vouch for His goodness? Yes, the saints. St. John Paul II during the 50th anniversary of his priesthood, made his theme of thanksgiving for his priesthood, the phrase, “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord” taken from Psalm 89. And this was the time when St. John Paul II was suffering already with many illnesses because of old age. If you try to look at the common attitude of all the saints towards God, you would conclude that it is their gratefulness or spirit of thanksgiving to God for giving them a share of His divine life, and of course a share of God’s happiness that goes along with it.
And lastly, we can assess the trustworthiness of God by interacting with Him ourselves through prayer much like how the hospital workers interacted with the newly hired doctor to find out the character of that doctor. If we develop that life of regular prayer, we will surely find out for ourselves that God is a good and faithful father who gives us what we need, sometimes does not give us what we ask for in prayer because it would not be good for us, but always gives us the grace needed for our spiritual growth and holiness. “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” (Psalm 34:8)
