God is good, all the time…and all the time, God is good. Fr. Albert used to start every Mass with this saying, and this is exactly what today’s readings reinforce for us. In the first reading, we hear God speak through Jeremiah, promising to bring the Israelites back from exile, and in the psalm we hear the Israelite’s prayer of thanksgiving and joy at God doing just that. In Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, he states that even in the case of Jesus, it was not Jesus who glorified himself, but rather God the Father who did it. Finally, in the Gospel we read about              Bartimaeus, the blind man who begged Jesus to allow him to see. Jesus does, in fact, heal Bartimaeus, but He uses an interesting choice of words… “Go your way, your faith has saved (healed) you.” Notice what He didn’t say. He didn’t say “I have healed you,” or even “God has healed you.” He said, “your faith has healed you.”

Faith and trust go hand in hand. Jesus had complete faith and trust in His Father, and that faith allowed Him to work the miracles that He did and to challenge others to also have faith. We need that same faith; not just belief in God and His power, but faith that He is a loving and forgiving Father and provider. God will always provide for us; but do we really believe that when things don’t go our way? I’m sure we’ve all had prayers that seemed to go unanswered, but faith tells us that God did for us what He knew was best in the long run, even if it wasn’t what we wanted or expected. God is good, all the time…so pray with confidence and trust God to provide.

Reflection by parishioner John Ceglarek