When you really trust someone, you have to be okay with not understanding some things.

“Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? . . . No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.” ― Pope Benedict XV

Scripture text: (PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9)
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tested me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts

The first person to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope was French acrobat Charles Blondin. Actually, Blondin crossed several times. A true showman, he never used a harness and yet he walked: backwards, on stilts, and blindfolded. He did somersaults, and even wheel barrowed out a stove and cooked omelets on it! But while spectators watched from the safety of land, perhaps the most courageous thing that happened on the wire was that his manager, Harry Colcord, rode across the falls on Blondin’s back!

Having observed Blondin for some time, Colcord didn’t just give lip service to Blondin’s abilities, but demonstrated—at the risk of his life—his full faith in him.

There are many instances in the Gospel where Jesus asks his observers for more than just an opinion or impersonal knowledge about who he is. He wants his disciples to grasp the depth of who he is, and to put their full faith into him.

Jesus was infinitely patient with the first disciples 2000 years ago as he is infinitely patient with you and I today. Day after day, he gives us opportunities to step out—many of them small, but occasionally something big. As we try our best to walk by faith and yield our temptations to him, he will become our strength. And even if sometimes we are like St Peter, who lost his nerve before the cock crowed three times on the first Good Friday, Jesus will pick us up and keep working with us. He never tires of asking, “Who do you say that I am?” And he never tires of giving us many different opportunities to answer him in faith and trust.