Sunday Meditation: Thinking About Faith

The women's day of reflection which I attended yesterday focused on the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. Of all the virtues these three let us reach out and touch the hand of God. All the other virtues support these three which take the prominent place in the hierarchy of virtues.

Fr. John Hardon, S.J. who died in 2000 used to say that the two things absolutely essential for salvation are faith and humility. "Only little, humble people go to heaven," he often said -- believing, faith-filled people, of course. 

Now it's patently clear that faith is not enough. One can believe and never act on that belief. Or one can believe and act very deliberately contrary to that belief. Face it! Lucifer is a believer. In fact, he was the first in the order of the angels and certainly even now believes in God....and hates Him.

St. Augustine believed that the angels were created on the first day. If he's correct, the angels witnessed the creation of heaven and earth and all that populate them. They were certainly there when man was created because a primary function of the angels is guardianship of mankind. And, of course, Lucifer had already fallen from pride and arrogance and was there in the garden tempting Adam and Eve. 

So faith is clearly not enough. Belief in God in an intellectual way, without every acting on that belief won't do a soul much good and may, in fact, do harm. We need to yield assent which is a wise thing to do since God is the only one who can neither deceive nor be deceived. 

Many people put their "faith" in experts, fallible human beings. They have faith in the weatherman and his predictions despite his dismal track record. During COVID millions of people put an almost religious faith in Dr. Anthony Fauci and Big Pharma to their sorrow. How many media junkies put their faith in MSNBC and CNN and believe without question talking heads like Joe Scarborough, Don Lemon, Rachel Maddow, the women of The View and other idealogues?

Pretty foolish! No, we need to make sure we put faith in trustworthy sources and no one is more trustworthy than God. 

But what if a person doesn't believe in God? What then? Does he have no faith?

Personally, I think everyone has faith; some people just put their faith in silly things that will fail them: their money, their personal opinions, their cult leaders, their possessions, their looks, their brains. I doubt there is a single person on earth who lacks faith. The question is whether that faith makes sense and will lead to their salvation. 

The atheist says he doesn't believe in God. Of course he does. He calls his god Evolution, or Chance, or Accident, or Primordial Soup. Some scientists put their faith in their knowledge of physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology or some other scientific specialty. Stephen Hawking was one of them. I found the video below profoundly sad. He talks about the "grand design of the universe." How can there be a design without a designer. I think he was too smart for his own good. I'm offering my rosary for him tonight.

We all need faith because it's through faith that we come to know God. How sad for those who never search and find it, but wallow in their own false opinions.

Father told a true story yesterday about a Muslim woman who was looking into the Catholic Church, but was torn. She experienced a profound moment seeing a little girl playing with her toys. As she watched, the child was immersed in brilliant light and two arms reached down to her. The little one looked up and then turned away to once again play with her toys. The young woman realized that she was that little girl. She subsequently entered the Church.

Most of us won't be given such an extraordinary invitation. God generally uses the ordinary things of life: a friend, a teacher, an event, dreams, thoughts. For Whittaker Chambers, the ex-Communist, it was the complexity of his baby's ear. 

How do we increase our faith? Father offered a number of ways.

• Pray for it. That's a prayer God will always answer with a resounding yes! 
• Thank God for the faith you have already and ask him to increase it. 
• Make little acts of faith throughout the day. "Increase my faith, Lord, that I may know You, love You, and serve You." 
• Study. Pray to the Holy Spirit who gave the apostles so much faith and grace on Pentecost that they left the locked room, cast off their fear, and preached boldly reaping a tremendous catch of souls.
• Be led by the spirit of God; not the world! 
• Turn to the sure guide, Our Lady, the perfect model of faith who will lead us straight to Jesus. Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. How can children of Mary and the Holy Spirit not thrive with such parents!

We don't need to understand everything. I think it was Fr. Hardon who said the holiest person he ever met was a cleaning woman. She didn't need a PhD in philosophy; she loved God above all things. Talk about a humble servant! A child with faith is wiser than the "wisest" philosopher with a huge cache of knowledge but no faith or a cold faith. I'd rather be a faith-filled child than the smartest person on the planet.

Each of us has a story to tell about our faith journey. I'd love to hear yours.