GOD KNOWS WHAT TO DO

Friday in the Second Week of Easter
Jn 6:1-15

During the Jubilee Year of the Son, there was a big gathering held at the Quirino Grandstand, Luneta, which involved the Ministry of Youth Affairs (MYA) of the Archdiocese of Manila. I was then part of the MYA team working with Bishop Soc. Realizing that we had very little fund for a presentation that the MYA planned to contribute to the celebration, I wondered from where we could source out the needed amount of money. Bishop Soc, with his usual, assuring smile said, “Kung gusto ng Diyos, matutuloy yan. Pero kung ayaw ng Diyos, kahit anong gawin natin hindi iyan matutuloy. (If God wants it, it will happen. But if God does not want it, whatever we do, it will not happen).” And, as experience showed, the Bishop Soc was always proven correct. Even in the parishes where I was assigned, the same reminder always the good Bishop had for me. By now, I learned to live by those words.

I hear the same advice again as I listen to the First Reading (Acts 5:34-42) today where Gamaliel, in reference to the ministry of the apostles, told the Sanhedrin, “If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human origin it will break up of its own accord; but if it does in fact come from God you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find your selves fighting against God.” Gamaliel said it so rightly because anything that does not come from God eventually dies while anything that God desires happens no matter what. And it is indeed terrible to realize that we are actually fighting against God as we fight something we mistakenly thought to be not from Him. Worse when we realize it already too late.

We worry a lot about many things. It can be a leap of faith to embark on a project with a very modest funding. Faith tells us that God provides. It can be a mark of faith to allow organizations and movements other than our own to flourish and not be threatened by their growing popularity. Faith tells us that God decides.

Today let us pray for an increase of faith in God, faith like the faith of Bishop Soc, a faith like that of Gamaliel’s. With the same faith, more baskets can be opened and less people will go hungry. It is that faith that can feed the multitudes as in the Gospel. It is that faith that satisfies the hunger of people who may not belong to your own movement. It is the faith that says, “Relax, God knows what He is doing!”