Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”

Jude and Kay are ambitious newlyweds whose first "job" has been volunteering at a food shelf and homeless shelter. They say one thing that struck them was how close we all are to the situation of the people using the food shelf. As one of their clients said: "Many people would be here with us if they missed a few paychecks."

Though we all do our best to secure paychecks by doing good work, there are factors present over which we have no control that could leave us without income. The economy, changes in demand for goods or services, restructuring of a corporation, the ravages of a pandemic to the economy, these may all be forces beyond our control.

It's not that way in our life as Christians. There is no arbitrary force, certainly not God, which is going to do us in. One still hears occasionally that one can live a good life, be serious about following Christ and still somehow fall moments before death into some heinous sin which will cut us off from God.

That might make for sensational drama but it's not consistent with human psychology and the way God works. We are only judged in terms of our conscience and our freedom. Even if the latter is limited in some ways, Christian belief about salvation presumes that we have enough of it to say Yes or No to God, to evil, to good.

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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