Danger of Mistrust

Your most serious infirmity is mistrust. Pray in order to obtain the grace, which will enable you to rid yourself of mistrust and fill you with spiritual confidence. (OCL, IV, 845, p. 87)

St. Vincent Pallotti speaks of the importance of the virtue of trust in the life of a Christian. The absence of trust, i.e., the presence of mistrust, makes a person’s life meaningless. A life lacking in confidence makes a person’s living indecisive. He is not able to make any decision as he is afraid of making a mistake. He feels helpless and diffident. Thus, a person caught in mistrust is filled with fear and anxiety. He is afraid of going wrong in any decision he makes. If he has made a decision, he is anxious about the outcome of the decision. When the attitude of mistrust takes hold of a person, he is not able to place his confidence in God, in other human persons, or in himself. A person is not able to trust God because he is afraid that God would punish him for his infidelity. He is not able to trust in the other human persons because he is anxious about what others will think of him or speak about his actions. He also does not trust in himself because he is not certain of his abilities to accomplish the demands of life. Living in the state of mistrust brings a great deal of pain to the person. St. Vincent, being aware of the danger of mistrust, asks his followers to accept it as an infirmity or an illness. One must treat this infirmity carefully. St. Vincent suggests that a person who is suffering from this infirmity must take special care to pray to God to fill him with self-confidence and confidence in God. The more a person builds confidence in God’s mercy the more he is able to trust others and himself.

Do I recognize the danger of mistrust in my life? Do I fail to trust in God, in other human persons and in myself? Do fear and anxiety dominate my relationship with God and others? What must I do to remove mistrust from my Christian life?

For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. (I Tim. 4:10)