"Jesus, I Trust in You!"

Four years ago today, I was initiated into the Roman Catholic.  I had found my home and I was now a full member of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  I cannot believe that it has been that long ago.  It seems like just yesterday that I was talking to Fr. Michael and asking him about joining the Church and then a few short months later receiving the graces of Baptism and Confirmation and finally being able to receive Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist.

 One of the parishioners told me that night that a chapter of my life was ending and a new chapter was beginning.  It was not really an end to the journey but really just a beginning.  I was not really sure what she meant at the time but I have come to understand.  When I was baptized I was given new life in Christ.  I now had to be Catholic.  I had to live out my Catholic faith.  I was now responsible for my faith.  I could not just sit around and claim that I am Catholic without the response.  Being Christian requires that response.  We are not called to just sit around saying we are Christian but to respond with love.  Our faith is dead without our works, our response:

"What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?  Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.  But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."  You believe that God is one You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.  But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?  You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.  You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?  For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." James 2:14-26

 I have tried to respond to God's call each and everyday and it has been a wonderful journey.  That is not saying that the road has not been a rocky one at times.  I am human and life is messy but all in all it has been wonderful.  Even at those rocky moments knowing that I was no longer having to rely on my own strength and allowing God to work through me has been amazing!  I am just an instrument, a compass if you will, trying to always point toward God in all that I do and all that I say. 

I have come to point in my walk with Christ that all I can say about my future is "Jesus, I Trust in You!"  His plans are always better than ours.