A famous folk tale is about a village suffering drought and praying for God to send rain. The village priest and the elders had all the people gathered on a particular day to pray and beg as a community for rain to fall. Everyone eagerly showed up, and lo, none brought an umbrella except a small child!

Trust is a much-used and abused word, especially regarding our relationship with God. We say we trust God and that we commend our lives into the hands of the Almighty. But as the above tale shows, is that just a facade we project within the faith community? When it comes to the crunch, how much are we willing to "let go and let God", as the popular saying goes?

In today's Gospel text, Jesus put His disciples to the ultimate test of trust when He sent them out on a mission without the basic comfort and security of anything material. All they need lies in the goodwill of hospitable strangers who welcome them into their homes, which is out of their control. What are they left with? Trust, of course; radical trust that Jesus, their Master and Lord, will not leave them out in the cold.

Sometimes, when our options are severely limited, we have "no choice" as it were, and we begin to radically trust in the Lord. But do we really need to be pushed to that point? Can we not trust even when things seem under control? Because that is when trust leads to gratitude, and gratitude leads to charity!