From today’s Scripture: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”—Mt 11:25. 

One day, at the ministerial meeting, one of the ministers had his three-month-old baby with him. Throughout the meeting that infant lay peacefully in his father’s arms. Then, it gently went to sleep. The infant had pure confidence in his father. He felt secure. That is the ‘childlike’ Jesus asks of us. He asks us to trust him. To seek our security in him. To face our challenges and difficulties in life with confidence that we are not alone. He is with us.

That is what is celebrated when a person receives the Anointing of the Sick. It is Jesus saying to the person: “I am with you; be not afraid.” Jesus tells us to rest in his arms. A holy card, which depicts Jesus holding out his hand, sits on my desk. I received it during a flood that hit here. It reminds me of this passage each time I look at it. “Focus on me, not on the storm.”

Let us pray: Jesus, may we always focus on you amid life’s joys and life’s hardships. May the storms that come our way be calmed by our knowledge that we are not alone, but that you are with us.

Today’s author is Father Tom Charters, missionary pastor of St. Michael the Archangel in Unicoi County, Tennessee.

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