Trust in me…

My dear people, today we celebrate the Sunday dedicated to the Triumph of Orthodoxy. This feast is a celebration of the end of the iconoclast heresy. This heresy rocked the Church and caused many divisions within Church structures and families. It involved the destruction of icons and religious images. However, the iconoclasts were proven wrong, because we can depict God in the Person of Christ because of the Incarnation.

This feast is more than this: it signifies that Christ will lead His Church no matter what, and as He promised, the gates of hell will not prevail.

Living in the internet age, many people have channels devoted to the faith—some good and edifying, some not so good. What has happened is that there is now a great deal of negativity and fear-mongering around events in the Church. What is important to remember is that Christ gave us the promise that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there.

Moreover, some of these commentators consider themselves theologians and competent to provide commentary on matters of faith. Unfortunately, some of these people lead others down a path of despair. Christ is with His Church—He was with her during the iconoclast crisis, and He will be with His Church and His people now.

St Basil the Great puts it like this:

“And so let us be glad and bear with patience everything the world throws at us, secure in the knowledge that it is then that we are most in the mind of God.”

We are called to be a people of hope. Allowing ourselves to fall into despair does not help our relationship with Christ. To despair is to say, “I do not trust You, Christ.” Just as the disciples witnessed the death of our Lord and Saviour, so too did they witness His Resurrection from the dead. Like them, we are called to bring this hope to the world and to show the world the love of Christ.

Never give up. Always pray, for as St John of Kronstadt puts it: “Prayer breathes hope.”

Through our prayer, we place our hopes before God and entrust Him with our worries.

St Isaac the Syrian puts it this way:

“When you pray, bring to mind the ploughman who sows in hope. He Who causes to return twofold the seed that the ploughman sows with hope, Who has esteemed the seeking of His kingdom and His righteousness to be greater than temporal things, He Himself will reward your entreaty according to His promise.”

Therefore, pray in hope and trust that God will give you all the things you hope for. God is a God who loves mankind and only seeks the best for His creation.