2024 3rd Sunday of Easter – “Trust and Believe”.

He (Father Walter Joseph Ciszek, S.J ) survived the Siberian Labor Camp and he died in 1984. He is now a candidate to become a saint. He wrote his experience in two books. The first is ‘With God in Russia’. and the second book what he wrote is ‘He Leadeth Me‘. In the book ‘With God in Russia’, he was asked what kept him going, what kept you going, what made you survived the most terrible condition of life? What motivated him not to commit suicide? Many of his companions committed suicide. His answer was: “Most people died in the camp specially when they gave up hope, but I trusted God and so I always had hope. It was not I who kept the faith , it was the faith that helped me survived.

Let me end now my reflection. These stories that you heard today. The gospel, Peter, Thomas, Leo Tolstoy and Walter Ciszek, they had many doubts. They had many questions about their faith in God, They were not sure about their faith. We must do what they did. And what is that? We bring our doubts and questions to the Lord and let the Lord whisper to us: Trust and believe. Manilawa and magtiwala ka.

~Father Francis

Reading 1, Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Reading 2, First John 2:1-5
Gospel, Luke 24:35-48