(Sixth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on February 15, 1998 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Jeremiah 17: 5-8.)

TRUST
T is for time;
R is for relationship;
U is for understanding;
S is for submit;
T is for try.

Some of you may have seen this news item in last Sunday’s Providence Journal:

Going to church may be good for the body as well as the soul. In a study of 1700 older Americans, researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that those who attended religious services had stronger immune responses. About 60% of the men and women surveyed attended religious services at least once a week. Blood tests showed that regular attendees were less likely to have high levels of an immune-system protein involved in age-related diseases. Earlier studies found a correlation between religious observation and good health, but it wasn’t clear if healthy individuals simply get to church regularly or if church attendance itself delays a decline in physical well being. This new study suggests a direct positive effect.

Aren’t you glad you came to church today?

Now the logical question that emerges from all this is "Why?"—"Why does this happen? Why does attendance at religious services have a positive, physical effect on people?" Well, personally, I don’t think it’s the building itself that makes the difference. Simply sitting in a church for 45 minutes on a Sunday morning (or an hour if you’re at Fr. Ray’s Mass) probably will not make anyone healthier. In fact, for some people it seems to have exactly the opposite effect. For example, people are always telling me, "Fr. Ray, when I listen to you preach I get sick to my stomach! It makes me ill!"

So simply occupying space in a pew will not improve your health—especially if you’re at my Mass! That means there must be something more to it. I believe the prophet Jeremiah tells us about the ‘something more’ in today’s first reading. Listen again to his words:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream. It fears not the heat when it comes, it’s leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.

According to Jeremiah, trusting in God is the source of blessings. Most importantly, it’s the source of great spiritual blessings. The person who trusts in the Lord, for example, will have an inner strength that others will not have. Consequently, he’ll be able to deal successfully with the "heat" of life: the trials, the disappointments, the struggles, the tragedies. But this Bible passage also indicates that trust in God is the source of certain physical benefits. Just as the tree benefits biologically from the water of the stream, so too we benefit physically from trusting in God. I think Jeremiah would tell us that the churchgoers in the Duke University study had stronger immune systems because they had a relationship with God and trusted in him more than the non-churchgoers did. Which makes perfect sense, because trust in God is a great antidote for stress, and stress (as we all know) is one of the greatest enemies of our physical health!

Before I go any further, I think it would be helpful to consult "Brother Webster." (If you heard my homily last week, you know that means, "the dictionary.") To trust, according to Brother Webster, means "to place reliance." And this is what Jeremiah is challenging us to do in this text: he’s challenging us to put our ultimate reliance on God and only on God! He begins by saying, "Cursed is the person who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth." Now let’s be clear about it: Jeremiah is not telling us here that we should never trust another human being for as long as we live. He’s telling us that we should never place our ultimate reliance on any other human person--or even on ourselves! That’s because people are fallible; people are not perfect; people sometimes lead us into sin; people are not always there when we need them; people die. Sure, we can place a certain level of trust in them (provided they’re worthy of that trust), but our ultimate reliance needs to be on God and only on God. That’s because God is perfect; God never leads us into sin; and God is always there.

I said a few moments ago that the reason the churchgoers in the Duke University study were healthier than the non-churchgoers is probably because their trust in God was deeper. But their trust in the Lord was certainly not perfect. Neither is ours. And that’s true even if we’re at Mass every single day of the year. So the question is: How can I grow to trust God more? What needs to happen if my trust in God is to increase? I thought about that during the past week, and the answer came to me in the form of an acronym. And it should be very easy for us to remember, because the acronym is the word "trust." The first "t" in trust stands for time. If we are really serious about wanting to trust God more, then we’ve got to spend a great deal of time getting to know him! There’s no other way. Why does a two year old child trust his mother more than anybody else? It’s because he spends more time with her than he spends with anybody else. This is why a daily prayer time is absolutely essential. Aside from Mass, that’s the primary place where we get to know the Lord. The fact is: we only have a deep trust when we have a deep relationship with someone—which is what the "r" stands for in the acronym. And relationships grow through conversation. This is why teenagers love to talk to their friends on the phone (much to the chagrin of their parents). They value those relationships, and through conversation those relationships grow stronger. This is one reason why Scripture reading is so important. When we read Scripture, and reflect on it, God speaks to us. He reveals himself to us. And this is the missing element in the prayer lives of many people. They have no trouble talking to God, but they never stop to listen to him! Well, no relationship will grow unless both sides speak and listen—and that includes our relationship with God.

When the Lord speaks and we listen, then our understanding increases. Understanding is the "u" in trust. You see, if we’re going to trust God deeply, then we need to understand how he operates. I think many people lose trust in the Lord precisely because they don’t understand him. They have unrealistic expectations of God. They hold him to things that he never promised us--"God didn’t give me what I want, so I don’t seek his help anymore." Well, God never promised us everything we want! He promised us everything we need--and that’s a very important qualification!

The "s" in trust stands for submit. If we want a deeper trust in the Lord, then we must be willing to submit to him. That means we have to be willing to obey him—in everything. And when we fail to obey, we’ve got to be humble enough to repent and make a good Confession.

Which brings us to the final "t" which stands for try. It may sound a bit trite, but it’s true nonetheless: if we want to trust more, we’ve got to try to trust more in the concrete situations of our daily lives.

Before I close, let me give you one biblical illustration of the truth of this acronym: the night Peter walked on water. We all know the story. Why did Peter do such a thing? Why did he suggest it? Remember it was Peter who said, "Jesus, if it really is you, tell me to come to you across the water!" It was his idea; it was not the Lord’s.

Very simply, Peter did it because, at that moment, he had a deep trust in Jesus. He had a deep trust, first of all, because he had spent a lot of time with our Lord. This was not the first day they met. And during that time Peter had dialogued with Jesus on a daily basis, and had developed a deep relationship with him. Consequently, he had come to a more complete understanding of what Jesus could do. He had seen our Lord heal lepers and raise the dead and multiply food, and so he probably thought to himself, "This is humanly impossible, but I know that Jesus can help me do it! I’ve seen him in action." And so Jesus says to him, "Peter, come." Peter then submits to the command of Jesus, and he walks on the water. He does something that would otherwise have been impossible. "But Fr. Ray, he eventually sank." True. But he tried, didn’t he? And he never gave up trying to trust Jesus, even though he faltered here and many times afterward.

Did all that "trying" pay off? You bet it did! It took a long time, but eventually Peter got very good at trusting in Jesus. In fact, in terms of trust, he ultimately became one of the best ever. That’s why we now call him, "Saint Peter."