After reading today’s gospel (Jn 14: 1-6), I started to think about faith and trust and nuances of meaning. Jesus says: Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. This is a post-resurrection story where he’s concerned about the faith of the disciples in what seems impossible…What they saw before them (Jesus alive – in the flesh) was something impossible to believe. They had to trust.
It seemed to me, upon reflection, that faith was more an intellectual capacity and trust involved a somewhat emotional response – a feeling level, if you will. As I often do, in an an attempt to “widen the field” of my brain or consciousness, I googled the word trust. What I found gave me enough for an entire day of reflection. Here’s what I offer you for today:
“The four elements of trust: (1) consistency; (2) compassion; (3) communication; and (4) competency.”
(Here’s where it gets interesting!) The next sentence says: “Each of these four factors is necessary in a trusting relationship but insufficient in isolation.”
Agreed???