Strong in the faith

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE should aim at having our faith as strong as possible. This is the only way we can start and keep sharing the very life of God here on earth. That’s actually the ideal condition for us to be in. Otherwise, there’s no way but for us to lead a life that is mainly temporal, worldly and prone to fall into the ways of brute animals.

We are reminded of this need in that gospel episode where a man with palsy was brought to Christ for curing. Since they could not get close to him due to the crowd, they climbed to the roof, bore a hole and lowered the man with palsy until he landed right in front of Christ. Impressed by their faith, Christ first forgave the man’s sin before curing him. (cfr. Mk 2,1-12)

To be always with Christ should be the strongest desire we should have in our life. Unless we have this fundamental and abiding desire, all our desiring would be vain and futile. We need to realize this truth of our faith, and do our best to cultivate such desire in our life.

It may not be easy, given our human condition, limited as it is by our nature and handicapped further by the effects of sin, ours and those of others. But once we know this truth of our faith, we can always do something about this challenge.

To be sure, God, on his part, has already given us everything. The ball is actually in our court. We just have to pick up the means and start the ball rolling. To begin, we can make many acts of faith, hope and charity.

St. Augustine expressed this truth of faith very clearly: “The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.” This assertion is certainly based on what God himself said: “Seek my face” (Ps 27,8), and on what Christ said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33)

We need to make our faith strong and operative because only with it can we start to share God’s knowledge of things and his power, which is how our life should be since we are God’s image and likeness, meant to share in the very life of God.

At one point, Christ lamented the common phenomenon of our lack of faith. “This generation is an evil generation,” he said. “It seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” (cfr. Lk 11,29-32)

If there is no faith, we will never see the things of God and the rich reality of the truly spiritual and supernatural world, no matter how much we spin our human powers to capture this reality. Not even our powerful sciences and technologies can enter into the spiritual and supernatural reality of our life.

We have to realize that our faith should not remain only in the theoretical, intellectual level. It has to be a functioning one, giving shape and direction in our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds. In fact, it should shape our whole life.

The ideal condition is for us to feel our faith immediately. Indeed, it should be like an instinct such that whatever we think, say or do, or whenever we have to react to something, it is our faith that should guide us.

With faith, we can have hope and confidence as we go through the wind and waves of the ocean of life. More than that, faith enables us to live charity, especially its fine points and its more challenging aspects.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com