With God, We Can!

For the Lord Jesus to be amazed of the faith of someone, it is already amazing. For that someone to be a centurion, a pagan, it is doubly amazing. The Lord pointed out that He had never seen such kind of faith in Israel! Israel, according to God's plan, should be the one exhibiting such faith. And yet, the irony was that the very people He chose was rejecting Him and the very people He would address later were the ones accepting already Him! The centurion showed true faith by just relying on the word of Jesus. His response to our Lord Jesus had been quoted in the mass to prepare the faithful in accepting the Lord in communion; "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed!" For the centurion, physical presence is not anymore necessary for one who has faith. His experience as an officer, a person of authority, taught him that. Authority complimented with faith makes things happen.

The challenge of building a new church after it got burned was very daunting. To think that I was new assigned in the parish, merely a month after I took over and six days after my installation. The task of building the church was not a question. The question was how; how should it look? How will the funds be obtained? Who will design and construct it? Who will finance it? Specially the funding, the task at hand is a challenge to ones' faith. But that is the point of faith. To believe and trust in God in a situation like this. And trust and faith I gave. And trust and faith our faithful gave!

In one of the fund raising events we had, a dinner concert, the orchestra was playing and everyone was enjoying the performance. We were in the middle of our dinner when suddenly it drizzled. The event was being held right there in the ruins of the burned church. We did not provide a tent cover hoping that it will not rain. Besides, such an event is best experienced in open air. There were some who stood and find a place to protect them from the rain. But many stayed. It was still a slight drizzled. I just found myself bowed in prayer, to God, to Mother Mary, and to our patron St. Alphonsus. I sought Gods' intervention and the intercession of Mary and St. Alphonsus. But I was resigned to it in case it is really Gods' will that this fund raising event will be aborted.The orchestra continued playing. The music seemed a musical score to my prayer. But I had faith, a deep faith, that it will not be stopped. Suddenly, the rain stopped. Everybody went back to their places and the orchestra played more loudly approaching the climax of the piece it was playing. Everybody clapped their hands, both for the players and the rain!

We had many succeeding events to raise funds for our church. In all of those, problems and challenges occur. Every time, we have to rely on God to assist us. Every time, we have to summon the guidance of Mother Mary and our patron, St. Alphonsus. This has become a refrain in all of those events. I realized that life is very much like any fund raising event; never without God's presence and assistance. Yes, God had given us so many things and he had made us capable of achieving great things. But we can not completely be on our own. Our dependence on God is absolute. Our faith should guarantee that. Without Him we can do nothing.