"Be not afraid; I am with you"

The Lord said to St. Paul: “Be not afraid. I am with you” (Acts 18: 9-18).  When brought before the tribunal, his accusers said “This man is inducing people to worship God contrary to the law” (Acts 18¨9-18). The Lord did not take away the reality that Jewish leaders saw him as a traitor of their faith and believed he would destroy their long-held traditions and had to be stopped. What the Lord did promise was that He would be at Paul’s side, just like the Father was always with Jesus in the sufferings He endured for our salvation.  Paul clung to that belief and never lost sight of the joy that would be his for all eternity if he persevered in the faith until the end of his pilgrimage and mission here on earth. 

The Lord has made the same promise to you and me.  No matter what tragedies or traumas, no matter what losses we endure in life, Jesus is at our side, as is His mother. She is as much with us as she was with her Son when he was being tortured to death for His faithfulness to the Father’s will.

Mary and Jesus did not escape life’s horrors. Neither will you and I.  However, like them, a divine power and an eternal light will be with us, giving us the strength to endure for the Lord’s sake and transforming the darkness around us into light.  In the end we will inherit an eternal home where there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more evil. Sometimes that  trust in God’s promise will be all we have to cling to when we are experiencing  this life’s tragic realities, no matter what those may be or from whom they are handed down to us. I believe that, do you?