Trust in Jesus' self-emptying love

December 21, 2003 -- Fourth Sunday of Advent

By Bishop Robert Morneau

	Bishop Robert Morneau
	Questions for reflection: 1. What is your level of trust? 2. Are the words you speak trustworthy? 3. What is the connection between trust and joy?

Advent is a season of trust. "Blessed is she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled" (Luke 1:45). Mary trusted in the message from the Angel Gabriel; Elizabeth trusted in God's providential plan for her and Zechariah. Trust is a first cousin of faith, that radical confidence that God keeps his promises.

God's word that came through the prophet Micah foretold of a shepherd who would come to rule and guide Israel. Here is a promise of great importance. Without strong leadership a people is adrift, lacking direction and a sense of the common good. But the promise here is more than a political figure gifted in leading a nation. What Micah foretold was a leader who would bring the peace of God into a world of violence and chaos. For us that prince of peace is Jesus, whose birth we are soon to commemorate.

Our culture speaks words far distant from those of Micah. Much of our vocabulary is filled with terms that diminish peace. These are words of violence and hatred, of fear and anxiety, of despair and war. Or often there are words of hope spoken but not lived. Advent is a good time to do an inventory on how trustworthy the words we speak come to completion.

Jesus' words come down to one phrase: "I have come to do your will, O God." In the letter to the Hebrews there is some development as to what God is longing for. It is not for the sacrifice of animals; it is not for holocausts and sin offerings. Rather, Jesus offers himself to whatever the Father wants. This is the mystery we celebrate during all the seasons of the Church's year. It is Jesus' self-emptying love for the salvation of the world. Here is something, rather someone, in whom we can trust.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, centered her life on the will of God. Back in March we celebrated the moment when Mary gave her consent, her "fiat," to God's purpose. She would be the mother of our savior. A double-trust here: a trust that God would overshadow her and Mary's trust that would be faithful to the promise she made.

We know that Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth and the father of John the Baptist, had to struggle with the question of trust. How could he and his aged wife Elizabeth bear a child in their old age? We know the rest of the story. How Zechariah was struck dumb as many of us are when trust is not a part of our lives. We clam up, afraid to risk. We fear that things like real change and conversion are impossible, even for God. Not so Elizabeth or Mary or Jesus. God is trustworthy and God's word will be fulfilled.

Trust is linked to joy just as distrust produces sadness. In a trusting atmosphere joy stirs within us. That's what happened to John in the womb of Elizabeth. The opposite is true: when trust is absent, nothing stirs and we get caught in the deadness of things.

Our coins carry the message "In God We Trust." Hopefully that motto is engraved on our souls for if it is not then our hope is wanting and our commitment to God's will cannot be sustained. To the extent that we trust and believe we will do God's will. And that will is grounded in love, a love similar to that love we witness in the lives of Mary and Jesus. It is a love that finds expression in giving glory to God.

(Bp. Morneau is the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay.)