{"id":2881,"date":"2007-07-13T15:01:48","date_gmt":"2007-07-13T15:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2007\/07\/when-god-asks-us-to-change\/"},"modified":"2007-07-13T15:01:48","modified_gmt":"2007-07-13T15:01:48","slug":"when-god-asks-us-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2007\/07\/when-god-asks-us-to-change\/","title":{"rendered":"When God Asks Us to Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rembrandt shows Jacob on his deathbed in Egypt, blessing the sons of Joseph. God was faithful to His promise. Joseph closed his father’s eyes.<\/em>
\n\"rembrandt%20jacob%20blessing%20children%20of%20joseph.jpg\"<\/a>
\nFriday of the Fourteenth Week of the Year I<\/strong>
\nGenesis 46:1-7, 28-30
\nPsalm 36, 3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
\nMatthew 10:16-23<\/em>
\nGod With Us in Change<\/strong>
\nIn today’s lesson from Genesis God reassures Jacob, who is about to make an enormous change in his life. Who among us is not resistant to change? We cling to our little securities. We are possessive and territorial: quick to say “my” and “mine” where the saints were quick to say “thy” and “thine.” We require change of others but bristle when asked to change ourselves.
\nSalutary Change<\/strong>
\nUprootings and detachments are never easy, but they are salutary. People who emigrate are obliged to leave many things behind. They are compelled to learn new ways of being, of relating, and of doing. More often than not they are obliged to learn a new language. God knows that for us change can be a frightening thing. This is why He intervened, calling Jacob by name “in visions of the night.” (Gen 46:2).
\nNight<\/strong>
\nIn Sacred Scripture, the night evokes a number of things. It is the obscurity in which faith is put to the test. It is the darkness in which one learns to hope for the dawn. God speaks, more often than not, during the hours of the night. He covers His most luminous works with night’s darkling veil: the Exodus, the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, and the resurrection. “If I say, \u2018Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to Thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with Thee” (Ps 138:11-12).
\nGod Hides and Speaks<\/strong>
\nThe saints and mystics of every age learned, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to cherish the night. We see this in Saint Gregory Nazianzen, and in the author of The Cloud of Unknowing; we see it in Saint John of the Cross, in Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and in the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman. The same God who hides himself in the dark night of faith, visits us by night to comfort us and to speak His secrets to our hearts.<\/p>\n


\nFear Not<\/strong>
\n“God spoke to Jacob in visions of the night, and said, \u2018Jacob, Jacob.’ And he said, \u2018Here am I’” (Gen 46:2). Ecce adsum<\/em>. “God said to him, \u2018I am the most mighty God of thy father \u2014 fortissimus Deus patris tuis<\/em> \u2014 fear not, go down into Egypt, for I will make a great nation of thee.” Fear not. Noli timere. God, you see, knows that change is not easy for us. He knows that we, out of a combination of the love of comfort, the lull of routine, and the fear of the unknown, are not easily convinced to get up and go anywhere, let alone “down to Egypt.”
\nI Will Go Down With Thee<\/strong>
\nAnd so God, speaking as the most loving of fathers, adds: “I will go down with thee thither, and will bring thee back again from thence” (Gen 46:4). Then He addresses one of Jacob’s deepest fears: that of dying alone, without the comforting presence of a son to close his eyes. And so, God says, “Joseph also \u2014 the favourite son \u2014 shall put his hands upon thy eyes” (Gen 46:4).
\nTrust in Him<\/strong>
\nThe Responsorial Psalm (36) is a practical instruction on surrender to the designs of God or, if you will, on abandonment to Divine Providence:
\nTrust in the Lord, and do good,
\nand dwell in the land, and thou shalt be fed with its riches.
\nDelight in the Lord,
\nand He will give thee the petitions of thy heart.
\nCommit thy way to the Lord,
\nand trust in Him, and He will do it (Ps 36:3-5).<\/em>
\nIn My Very Confidence Lies My Hope<\/strong>
\nWhen the fear of change comes upon us we need to pray Psalm 36. We need to repeat the promises of God to one who trusts absolutely in Him. Perhaps too, we need to pray the prayer of that great friend of the Sacred Heart, Saint Claude La Colombière:
\nMy God, I believe most firmly \u2028that Thou watchest over all who hope in Thee, \u2028and that we can want for nothing \u2028when we rely upon Thee in all things; \u2028therefore I am resolved for the future to have no anxieties, \u2028and to cast all my cares upon Thee.\u2028\u2028
\nPeople may deprive me of worldly goods and of honors; \u2028sickness may take from me my strength \u2028and the means of serving Thee; \u2028I may even lose Thy grace by sin; \u2028but my trust shall never leave me. \u2028I will preserve it to the last moment of my life, \u2028and the powers of hell shall seek in vain to wrestle it from me.\u2028\u2028
\nLet others seek happiness in their wealth, in their talents; \u2028let them trust to the purity of their lives, \u2028the severity of their mortifications, \u2028to the number of their good works, the fervor of their prayers; \u2028as for me, O my God, in my very confidence lies all my hope. \u2028”For Thou, O Lord, singularly has settled me in hope.” \u2028This confidence can never be in vain. \u2028”No one has hoped in the Lord and has been confounded.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rembrandt shows Jacob on his deathbed in Egypt, blessing the sons of Joseph. God was faithful to His promise. Joseph closed his father’s eyes. Friday of the Fourteenth Week of the Year I Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30 Psalm 36, 3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40 Matthew 10:16-23 God With Us in Change In today’s lesson from Genesis God <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-Kt","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}