Faith
FAITH, according to our theologians, is a free gift of God. We believe because in His mercy He chose us to follow Him. Why is it that I believe in Jesus Christ and millions in China, India, and other parts of the world do not believe? God in His Mercy chose to give us faith or belief that Jesus is the true Son of God who came to be our Redeemer from our sins and weaknesses. But beyond this initial faith, the Lord wants us to increase it on our own effort. He chides the Apostles for the weakness of their faith and He rebukes Peter for losing his trust that Jesus will save him from the angry waves. He praises the woman with a sick child for her faith and also the centurion who declared that he was not worthy that the Lord would enter his house. Once we have the faith, it is up to us to increase it and take the initiative and effort to make it stronger. We must believe that the Lord will do the moving of the mountain if we have faith that He will move the mountain if we ask Him.
He wants to take the initiative (the kusang loob) just like Mary undertook a journey of about 30 miles to go to help Elizabeth her cousin who, she learned, was pregnant. She stayed with her about three months to help Elizabeth in her pregnancy. After initiative, the Lord wants us to be ambitious in our faith. He wants us to do great things for Him. At the same time he wants perseverance and maximum effort. We must spread the faith and do great things. We cannot just be content with our good fortune. We must do all we can to help others. It is better to give than to receive. What must we do with the great fortune that we are asking the Lord to give us? We all deserve a great fortune but we must plan how to give it back to our fellow man.
Faith is our greatest treasure. We believe in Jesus, our Redeemer. He has promised us salvation in the next life. But He also assures us of help in this life not only to be saved but also in all our endeavors. The initiative and the effort must be from us. He will do the helping for our success in the spiritual realm as well as in the material. In the Our Father, we ask Him to give us our daily bread which means all that we need in this life to live it as worthy children of a mighty Father. He does not promise us success in the material things but neither does He refuse to provide us with the wealth that we need to live a life worthy of His sons.
Finally we must want to have a great faith, one in which we trust that if needed we can move mountains. He will do the moving but, we with our effort, will do the wanting and the commitment. We must trust Him that we can walk over the waters if needed. We trust Him when He says that He will give us His Flesh and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament. We trust Him when He says that He will forgive us our sins through His ministers who will forgive and bind the actions that we take here on earth as it will be in heaven. These are the ordinary miracles that we believe in just because He said so. We have to have great faith in his willingness to help us.
The good Lord has plans for each one of us. It is for our good. We must have faith that it will help us to grow our hope and love of Him. Sometimes the Lord writes straight with crooked lines. We do not understand His ways but we know it is for our good. On our part we try with all our might to love and increase our faith and love of Him and of our neighbor.