Trust in Providence

Homily for Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Commentaries on the Scriptures point out that people of New Testament times believed in the presence and power of devils or evil spirits all around them and especially as causes of illness and harm. The two readings today both suggest some of the frustrations and ills of ordinary human life which lend credence to the notion that some evil power is at work.

We don’t have to look too far to find evidence of evil in our world. The war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, the recent earthquakes in Japan, the recent shootings of innocent schoolchildren, and the ongoing threat of crime in our communities are just a few examples. Many a human being has hopes that seem so often doomed to disappointment. Sometimes there is present in our life or that of our family and friends illnesses like those attributed to unclean spirits by Jesus’ contemporaries.

Childlessness was one such evil that plagued Hannah in our reading from the First Book of Samuel. Infertility is still a major cause of hopelessness in the lives of so many men and women. In Hannah’s case, “the Lord remembered her,” and she had her son destined to be named Samuel. The man in the Gospel text for today also was relieved of the presence of the demon in his life, whatever form it took. Other Gospel stories suggest that some of these cases looked a lot like mental illness or epilepsy.

It would be wonderful if one could promise healing and a solution to all our problems in exchange for trust in the Lord. We all know from the example of faith-filled people who nevertheless suffer that there is no such simple answer. Can the fact that the Scriptures show us people getting responses from God help us to trust? Perhaps there are people in the histories of our families who attest to the fact that God answers prayers. Part of the faith we pray for and work at daily is maintaining a trust in God even when the answer to our prayer is long in coming or never evident.

Jesus also once prayed that he would not have to endure the evil that was coming his way. However, he appended that prayer with a simple aspiration: “Your will be done.” May God give us the grace through this Eucharist to place our trust in God’s providential care.