The readings for today led me on a wonderful journey of blossoming trust. The first reading from Genesis tells the well-known story of Jacob’s ladder. Fittingly, Jacob is on a journey, a setting so appropriate for what develops. He lies down, his head on a stone for a pillow, and dreams of the ladder that stretches to heaven populated with God’s messengers (angels?) going up and down on it. The Lord stands beside Jacob and makes him the treasured promise. Actually there are several promises. Not only will the Lord give Jacob and his descendants the land, but Jacob and his descendants will be a blessing to all the nations on earth. Then follows the promise that so many Israelites have clung to through persecutions upon persecutions: Know that I am with you. I will protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you.” Then Jacob makes a rather conditional vow. If God remains with me (his trust and belief  in God’s promise seem a bit shaky) to protect me  on this journey….AND to give me enough bread..AND clothing..AND I come back safe…the Lord shall be my God. God’s promise was definitive, Jacob’s response not so much.

The psalm leads us further into trust, saying : In you, my God, I place my trust.”  No doubts. God replies with his loving protection in this beautiful  psalm said at the monastic hour before bed, so reassuring and comforting, like a tender mother tucking you in at night.

The Gospel wraps it all up with two stories, both of trust, both ending in God’s loving healing. An official actually interrupted Jesus while he was speaking to say his daughter had just died but if Jesus would come and lay his hand on her she would live. What trust, that his interruption would not be rebuffed and that Jesus could and would raise his dead daughter.  Meanwhile, as Jesus proceeds to do just that, the woman who had suffered hemorrhages for twelve years (thus making her ritually impure and a social outcast) says to herself “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.” Her trust is giant. Her confidence a force. She dares to touch him – an act forbidden to someone who is ritually impure – and trusts that alone will heal her. You know the end of both stories of trust and confidence – the daughter rises from her deathbed and the woman is healed.

I ask myself: do I trust Jesus with my failings, my impurities, my daily dyings, my lack of faith? . Am I afraid to “interrupt” him thinking my problems are too small to bother him with? How can I grow in confidence and trust in this God who says he will deliver whoever clings to him. I will call upon him and he will answer. He will be with me in distress.

In you, O God, I place my trust.