Faith: What Good is It?
Why Some People Have Faith and Some Do Not
Faith is not a warm, fuzzy feeling. It is much more than a feeling.
After all, feelings come and go.
Faith is a gift from God available to anyone who asks for it, and faith endures; it grows as a person develops a trusting relationship between himself or herself and our loving God.
I once worked for a brilliant transplant surgeon who scoffed at religion and believers because he thought faith was simply a coping mechanism for weak individuals who could not face life alone.
He claimed if he ever wrote his autobiography, he would entitle it No Hand to Hold, No Shoulder to Cry On.
Despite his atheistic stance, general state of unhappiness, and gruff demeanor, he truly loved.
He loved his seven grown children, and he loved all his patients, especially children. His eyes sparkled when he talked about them.
Where did that love come from? He could not answer that question.
The atheist who chooses to believe that once upon a time, mindless molecules floating in the ether organized themselves into planets, plants, protoplasm and eventually people cannot explain the origin of love.
No wonder they don’t really understand faith.
The atheist’s world view places strict limits on what is real.
Love and faith cannot be seen yet they are real, and they are intertwined owing to their nature.
The God of love cannot be seen either, yet he offers all of us an infinite supply of both faith and love — if we ask.
All we have to offer God is our ability to be filled and a contrite heart.
Having faith in God does not mean that all doubt is vanquished forever. We are human, and sometimes the death of a child or a plane crash can cause us to doubt God’s very existence.
Suffering gives us an opportunity to move away from or grow closer to God who never leaves us.
Faith and doubt are as real as light and darkness; life is full of opposites, and only by opposites are we able to recognize both ends of each spectrum.
However, a person who has grounded himself by reading the Holy Scriptures and through daily prayer knows that God is real. He makes His presence known in a million different ways. He gives us faith in the first place; certainly, He is able to strengthen that faith during tough times when we ask.
What is faith? “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, RSV). “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Romans 10:17, RSV).
The Holy Mass at the Catholic Church provides the opportunity for a seeker to hear the Scriptures read out loud. And through the reception of the Holy Communion, the baptized Catholic actually receives the Body and Blood of Christ. A real relationship between the Christian and between the Risen Lord Jesus Christ is established, cemented and sustained.
Encountering Christ by all available means — through receiving all the sacraments, by prayer, and by hearing the Scriptures read — will lead us, by God’s grace, to grow in love and faith that will sustain us on our pilgrimage to heaven.
And it is interesting to note, that neither faith nor hope will remain; in heaven, what lasts for an eternity is only pure love.
