Despite trials, temptations, and spiritual captivity, God remains faithful. District Apostle Tshitshi Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo encourages us to hold fast to this truth.
“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1: 9).
Trials can shake our trust in God’s faithfulness, even to the point of rejection. When Israel was led out of Egypt by the mighty hand of God and brought into the Promised Land, the people experienced God’s faithfulness in a powerful way. Unfortunately, their faith in this faithful God was shaken by the Babylonian exile that followed.
The Israelites were confused and disoriented. They struggled to understand what was happening to them and began to question the promises God had given them. With the onset of the Babylonian captivity, three pillars of Israel’s faith had collapsed: the temple, the Davidic kingship, and the Promised Land. Psalm 137: 1 gives voice to the deep sorrow of those in captivity: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.” In their anguish, the Israelites did not hesitate to express their disappointment, even portraying God as an adversary: “The Lord was like an enemy; He has destroyed Israel. He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces, He has destroyed her strongholds …” (Lamentations 2: 5). As a result of the captivity, confidence in God’s faithfulness gave way to doubt and rejection.
Our own trials can sometimes make us feel as though we are being led into a kind of spiritual captivity—so much so that we begin to question God’s actions and His faithfulness to His word. Yet we must remember that what we are experiencing is only an apparent defeat, not the end. We lose nothing that is essential to our faith: the Church remains present, the apostolate is active in it, and the kingdom of heaven is proclaimed in this Church. And by receiving the sacraments and the word of God we are being prepared to enter the new creation.
When seen through the lens of faith, our trials can become the very means through which God reveals His power. “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12: 9).
How and when will we emerge from these trials? Only God knows the answer. But we are called to continue to trust in His faithfulness. The way God brought an end to the Babylonian exile was beyond anything the Israelites could have imagined. Cyrus, the king of Persia—a foreign ruler—became the instrument in God’s hands to liberate His people: “I am the Lord … who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he shall perform all My pleasure ….’ Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held” (Isaiah 44: 28–45: 1).
God’s faithfulness unfolds within the personal relationship each of us has with Him. Let us embrace our annual motto as our guiding principle and say to God, “I believe in Your faithfulness.”