Millennial Lenten Reflections: Put your Faith in Him

Editor’s Note: The following is part of Millennial Lenten Reflections, a blog series in collaboration with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Short reflections on the day’s readings, written by young adults from FMS and other organizations, will be posted everyday throughout Lent. 

Why do bad things happen to good people? This question is repeated time and time again in our culture. What we fail to see in the moment is that bad things are not always bad and that these things happen to everyone. In today’s Gospel Jesus says God “makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and unjust.”

Because we are human we become limited when we try and understand God’s plan, when we try to comprehend why these seemingly bad things happen to good people. When we allow God to work through us, we are no longer limited. Giving up control to God makes it easier to be less controlling in our own lives—we have less of an urge to understand and we become at peace with the notion that we will never know God’s entire plan.

Today Jesus asks us to put our trust in God without knowing the full picture. He asks us to be as perfect as God, which is a daunting task. Although humans are born with imperfections, God loves us still. As God continues to show us love despite our imperfections, we should strive to mirror this love for others this Lent.

Jes Stevens is a Loretto Volunteer who lives in Washington, D.C. and works for CACG. He graduated from Fontbonne University in 2014 with a degree in sociology and psychology.