VATICAN CITY (CNS) Even if life often is marked by “pain, uncertainty and moments of crisis, it is a story of salvation,” Pope Francis says in the preface of a new book, The Power of Trust: Ten Steps for Conquering Fear and Developing Self-Esteem, by Italian psychologist and family counsellor, Salvo Noe, published in Italian by the St. Paul publishing house in early November.
People of faith know that “in Jesus our every exile ends and every tear is dried in the mystery of his cross, of death transformed into life like the grain of wheat that breaks apart in the soil” and grows, the pope says.
Pope Francis writes that God’s love and faithfulness are what give people the strength to keep going on life’s journey and to venture forth on new paths.
The pope draws parallels with farming where human effort is required, but that act of sowing seeds also requires hope, trust and a period of “powerless waiting” for an unknown outcome. Whether harvests yield much fruit or fail, the farmer still sows those seeds year after year, he writes.
Every day, people wake up to start their journey, trusting in the Lord, being open to his surprises, which are “often good, sometimes bad,” but Christians always should be confident that, no matter what, God is leading the way to a safe refuge, the promised land, the pope writes in the preface.
Prayer can help people situate themselves in this terrain or “land of faith,” where, despite the darkness, difficulties and sorrows, they can be confident that “the light of Christ truly will give us the great harvest in the end,” the pope writes.
“Therefore, we have to learn this even in the darkest nights: to not forget that light is there, that God is already in our life and that we can sow with great faith that God’s ‘yes’ is stronger than all of us,” he says.
Pope Francis writes that gratitude for encountering Jesus turns into hope because it is “precisely the suffering of sowing” that marks the start of a new life and true joy.
“Trust generates love and none of us can live without love, and believing that love should be earned is a horrible slavery,” he says, noting how many people seek the spotlight “only to fill an emptiness inside” and are in constant need of validation.
He asks if people can “imagine a world where everyone begs for reasons to get other people’s attention and instead no one is willing to freely love another person?”
