FAITH -- FIRE IN THE HEART

August 5^th, 2018: 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.  John 6:24-35.

AIM:  To deepen the hearers= faith.

 

AThis is the work of God,@ Jesus says in the gospel reading we have just heard, Athat you believe in the one he sent.@ Or as another translation has it: Ahave faith in the one he sent.@ What is faith? For many of us, I think, faith means belief in the truths contained in the creed which we recite every Sunday at Mass. Faith in that sense is more properly called Abelief@: mental assent. Important as that is, faith has another meaning: personal trust C an affair not just of the head, but of the heart.  Even the creed begins not AI believe that@ but AI believe in.@ To believe in someone is to trust that person. ABelief is a truth held in the mind. Faith is a fire in the heart.@ (Joseph Newton). Let me tell you a story about such trusting faith.

Some Alpine guides in a Swiss village organized a climb late in the season, after all the tourists had departed. They reached their chosen summit without difficulty. They were disappointed, however, not to have found an edelweiss, the delicate star-shaped white flower that grows only at high altitudes and is prized by mountaineers as a souvenir of their exploits.

The group had already started their descent when one of them spotted a single edelweiss on a narrow ledge some thirty feet below. To get it someone would have to be let down on a rope. There was no time to linger, for the weather, which changes rapidly in the mountains, was deteriorating. The climbers turned at once to the youngest and smallest member of the party, twelve-year-old Hans, making his first major climb with his father. It would be easy to let him down. In five minutes they could be on their way again. 

AWhat about it, Hans,@ they asked. AWill you do it?@

Hans peered anxiously at the narrow ledge with the treasured white flower C and at the sheer drop of hundreds of feet immediately beyond.

AI=ll do it,@ Hans replied, Aif my father holds the rope.@

That=s faith B unconditional trust! That is what Jesus is talking about when he says in today=s gospel: AThis is the work of God: have faith in the One he sent.@ The people Jesus was addressing had asked about something else entirely: AWhat must we do to perform the works of God?@ Raised, like many Catholics today, in a tradition which emphasized a long list of commands and prohibitions, they expected Jesus to give them a set of Do=s and Don=t=s. Instead he demanded simply trusting faith in the One God had sent. 

Still thinking in legalistic terms, the people counter with a request for some authenticating Asign@ to justify the faith Jesus was demanding. AWhat sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?@ The people go on to mention what Moses had done when, as we heard in the first reading, he had given their ancestors manna B mysterious bread from heaven during their desert wanderings.

Gently, Jesus corrects their account of Moses= work. That bread, Jesus explains, had not come from Moses. It came from God. The manner in which it was given had itself been a test of faith for those who received it. AEach day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.@

Some of the people failed that test. Unwilling to trust God, who gave them the food, they disobeyed the command to gather each day only enough for that day. Some hoarded the manna B only to find that it spoiled overnight (cf. Exodus 16:16-20). Behind the hoarding was a lack of faith. They failed to trust God. They did not believe that the One who fed them today would also provide for their needs tomorrow.

What about ourselves? Do we trust God only when we can see results, when we have proof? Or are we willing to go on trusting when we cannot see, because all is dark, and life seems meaningless? That is the kind of faith Jesus asks of us. And faith of that kind is truly, as Jesus tells us in today=s gospel, Athe work of God.@ It is God=s work because it is not something we can produce or summon up merely through willpower. Nor is it something for which we can take credit. Faith that trusts, and goes on trusting even when there seems to be no reason for trust is, in the most literal sense, God=s work and God=s gift. 

God bestows this gift on all who ask for it. He may not do so in just the way we want, or at the time we expect. Being willing to leave the manner and time of this gift to God the giver is itself part of faith, a test of our sincerity in asking for faith. To encourage us to ask for this gift of faith, and to keep on asking, Jesus tells us: AWhoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.@ 

Those are tremendous words. What they mean is simply this: those who come to Jesus with trusting faith possess something so precious that bodily hunger and thirst sink into insignificance. 

That is the personal promise of Jesus Christ to each one of us. To discover that his promise is true, we must take him at his word. He is inviting us to begin, right now.