The Word of God reveals the essence of Faith when we read, "Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen." Noah built the Ark by relying on God's Word alone, for the rains had not yet come, but Noah built the Ark by faithfully trusting that God would keep His Word. He faced the derision of the crowds and cared not how much their peels of laughter rang out, Noah kept building.
Faith is not about reading a lot and gaining in knowledge if this was so some of our greatest scientists should have excelled in love of God, but instead many proclaimed geniuses were atheists. This also includes some of our greatest thinkers, Friedrich Nietzsche through his writings proposed a parable that God is dead and in God's place would step the superman theory, in effect the 'perfect human specimen'. This theory though not intended was carried out by the National Socialist party of Germany under its leader Adolf Hitler. The theory that Nietzsche proposed was seen in all its horror as many Germans embraced the perfect Aryan specimen of man devoid of humanity, man then became a godless creature, devoid of human compassion.
When we look at Caiphas we see how though God can live amongst us yet we recognise Him not! When Jesus was led before Caiphas a very learned man of great intellect who had studied and knew the Law inside out, yet he failed to recognise God who stood before him face to face. Caiphas total absorption was not on God's Will but on the Law as he tightened the chains on those who wished to follow this 'man' Jesus! Caiphas was not a blight on mankind for had God not created him through His Divine Spark of infinite Love? Yet even though Caiphas had studied the Prophets he failed to see God in his midst, is Caiphas unusual in this or do we to fail to recognise God in the ordinary?
Sincere and true Faith is not simply a belief in God through the birth, death and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, in order for Faith to have any relevance we must live it, to do otherwise makes us 'ritual observers' little different from Caiphas. As the then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, "We need the living Christ, whom we can know only through our encounter with Him. But encounter presumes actual presence -- the Real Presence, which, in turn, requires the Sacrament and the Church that alone is authorized to give us the Sacrament, the Church that Jesus Christ Himself willed into existence and continues to support. The Eucharist, at each new celebration, must be recognized anew as the core of our Christian life. But we cannot celebrate the Eucharist adequately if we are content to reduce it to a ritual of, more or less, a half-hour's duration. To receive Christ means to worship Him. We welcome Him properly and worthily at the solemn moment of receiving Him only when we worship Him and in worshipping Him learn to know Him, come to understand His nature, and follow Him. We need to learn once more how to rest peacefully in His gentle presence in our churches, where the Eucharist is likewise always present because Christ intercedes for us before the Father, because He always awaits us and speaks to us. We must learn again how to draw inwardly close to Him, for it is only thus that we become worthy of the Eucharist."
When we reduce relationship to mere ritual, then is that love of God or love of a theory? We know that God is love, yet unless we live this very love in our own lives, then Christianity is a mere hypothesis yet to be utilised let alone lived. In another way let us look at this fact, if we love our children and proclaim this love to them and the world yet we fail to provide for their needs as they starve from lack of food, remain filthy through lack of care, is this love or mere empty rhetoric? The same goes when we attend Mass not through love of God and a longing to receive Him through the Sacraments but as mere 'religious observation' a sense of doing ones 'duty' are we not making religion a legalistic institution devoid of heart and soul.
Is this not the highest insult to our Heavenly Father to give him our presense but not our heart? To make God little more than a bit actor on the stage of our life, as if we were the entire focus of meaning and relevance to our existence! When we reduce our Faith to the level of fulfilling our sense of duty and even of giving to the needy have we not made our Faith little more than another social assistance program? It is not enough to give 'things' when God Commands us to give of ourselves to Him alone! As that great man of the Church, Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote, "Sanctity, then, is not giving up the world. It is exchanging the world. It is a continuation of that sublime transaction of the Incarnation in which Christ says to man: "You give Me your humanity, I will give you My divinity. You give Me your time, I will give you My eternity. You give Me your slavery, I will give you My freedom. You give Me your death, I will give you My life. You give Me your nothingness, I will give you My all." And the consoling thought throughout this whole transforming process that it does not require much time to make us saints; it requires only much love."
The only thing that can transform us is the indwelling Spirit but only with our consent. God will come to us in various forms and mediums. Such was the case with Saul who was thrown from his donkey and was given a vision of Christ Himself as Scripture reveals when Paul testified, "On one such occasion I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests. At midday, along the way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling companions. We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.' And I said, 'Who are you, sir?' And the Lord replied, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Get up now, and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness of what you have seen (of me) and what you will be shown. I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you, to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated by faith in me."
After Paul had seen this vision of Christ, did he return to his old life and resume his old ways? Did he continue to follow and be bound by Law alone or was he transformed into a living 'christ' so that no longer he lived but Christ liveth within him? St. Paul understood that when one believes in something they must then live it or die, for there are many deaths other than just the physical. If we live a life of religious obligation or 'ritualistic religion' as we observe the form of the Mass yet remain unmoved and detached this is a form of spiritual death which is brought upon ourselves.
Faith is more than just believing in God for doesn't Satan also believe in God? Faith is also more than doing our 'duty' for did not the Pharisee's fulfill their religious duty? Faith is also more than knowledge for was not King Solomon wise yet he fell from Grace?
What faith means is to live it each day, and by partaking of the Sacraments and in giving God our own fiat we then allow the indwelling Spirit to transform us into the Beatific Vision of how life can be when we surrender our will and live Gods Will. Those who willingly do not live their faith but instead are simply 'going through the motions' is soon evident to all as they continue to live worldly lives as they say the Word of God but God is far from their hearts.
We may not always understand Gods Way, but like our Blessed Mother we obey our Heavenly Father from filial love and in acknowledgement of our own unworthiness and in humility we come to understand that God has no need of us, but we have every need of God. This then allows us to live our Faith as a living Spirit, for as Blessed Mother Teresa said, "You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me...There are so many religions and each one has its different ways of following God. I follow Christ: Jesus is my God, Jesus is my Spouse, Jesus is my Life, Jesus is my only Love, Jesus is my All in All; Jesus is my Everything."
Mother Teresa understood that only God ennobles man and divinizes all we do from the outpouring of His Love. When we then put our Faith into action this displays the outpouring of the Living Water of Faith which flows through us and is shown through love in action, not our love but God's Love.
Peace of Christ to ALL
Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.
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