Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church

By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name. He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a symbol. 

Throughout our lives we will be put to the test, not because God wants us to fail, but because He wants us to succeed. He wants us to learn how to know, love, and serve Him and His children with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths. He wants us to choose what is right and to avoid those things that lead us into sin. He wants us to be willing to sacrifice everything for Him. He does this because He knows that without a tested conscience and well-formed free will, we could not love Him and His children as we should. We could not understand what it means to be charitable and merciful without the ability to choose to be selfish and unforgiving. True love and mercy are tested in the fires of temptation and quenched in the waters of opportunity. Hopefully, we shall prove our worth by being made stronger by our spiritual tests.

What tests are we undergoing at the moment? How can we overcome them? How can we learn to trust in God as much as Abraham trusted in God?

O Lord, give us the strength to overcome every test and trust in you.

Amen.