When God tests our faith

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WHEN that happens, the thing to do is to cling more firmly to our faith in God and in his loving and merciful providence. We should never overreact by worrying, fearing and, worse, losing our faith. We should never doubt God’s love and care for us all.

When God tests our faith, we should consider it an opportunity to grow in faith. Let us follow the example of the Syrophoenician woman in the Gospel whose request for the healing of her daughter was at first denied (cf. Mk 7:24–30).

When Christ told her, “Suffer first the children to be filled, for it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs,” she answered, “Yes, Lord, for the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children.”

That was when Christ was pleased with her response and told her, “The devil is gone out of your daughter.” And when the mother went home, she found her daughter well.

We should always feel the need to sustain and continually strengthen our faith, which is the bedrock of our Christian life. Without it, or with weak faith, we will most likely compromise our entire life.

We need to be more aware of this duty and develop the appropriate attitude and skills to carry out this responsibility effectively. We have to go beyond mere good intentions or theory in order to be truly practical and vitally engaged with this obligation.

We have to remember that in developing and strengthening our faith, we need to commit our whole selves to God. We should not be merely sentimental, emotional or intellectual about it. We have to give our whole selves in good times and in bad, 24/7. We have to involve all our powers and faculties — our past, present and future.

Faith is not simply intellectual assent to certain truths. It is an act of our entire being in which we integrally and completely commit ourselves. If we truly have faith, we will show it in every action of our life.

We will consistently refer everything to Christ, look for him, find and talk to him, seek his guidance, follow his will and ways, and make him the goal of all our activities. This has to be distinguished from fanaticism, because faith requires a living union with God, while fanaticism can mimic the appearance of faith but is not based on that living union, rather on something else.

If we truly have faith, we will always make Christ present wherever we are. Regardless of our human condition, we can always exude a certain aura of wisdom, goodness, charity, kindness, mercy, justice and strength.

Faith is something much deeper and more complete than a simple affirmation of certain truths. It produces an effective and operative presence of the love of Christ among people. It makes us plant the seed of love in each heart. It leads us to discover all the good things in the world where God himself has placed us so that we may be holy. It also points out where the dangers are.

Let us always strengthen our faith by spending some moments every day in mental prayer, living in the presence of God, waging a continuing ascetical struggle to develop virtues and fight our weaknesses and temptations, studying and assimilating the doctrine of our faith, and pursuing a lifelong plan of formation.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com