Faith is the realization of what is hoped for
and evidence of things not seen.
What is faith? Do some folks have more faith than others? How can I increase my faith?
Friends, there is probably no better definition of the reality we call ‘faith’ than the one we find in the Letter to the Hebrews quoted above. However, defining faith and living out faith are two radically different things.
So much of a priest’s life is engaging with the ‘faith-questions’ of the people he has served over the years. A common question that has been posed to me down through the 51 years of my priestly service, asks something like this, “Father, I have doubts and wrestle with faith-questions. Does that mean I’m not a good Catholic?” Sound familiar?
My response down through the years has sounded pretty much the same. Faith and doubt naturally coexist. The vast majority of Catholics, if they are truly honest with themselves, wrestle with their faith. Is that a bad thing? On the contrary, this is a normal and natural part in the maturation of faith and making it our own rather than the faith of someone else. Young people often carry into their adulthood the faith of their parents. While the Sacrament of Confirmation would normally mark the making of faith one’s own as the sacrament that completes our Christian Initiation, sadly and paradoxically, it often marks one’s exit from the Church, or at least the active practice of faith.
So many parents agonize over this reality and ask the question ‘why?’ They wrestle with, ‘I did everything for my son or daughter to grow up in the faith; sent them to Catholic school and insured they went to Mass every Sunday. And now, I feel like such a failure. They left the Church.’
My friends, a vibrant and courageous faith that can sustain us in the present age cannot be the faith of others but it must be OUR faith. Such ‘sabbaticals’ from the active practice of the Catholic faith should not be viewed as ‘leaving the Church.’ Often, times of questioning and doubt are necessary prerequisites in making faith our own.
Often, it can be a crisis in life, or a moment of renewed commitment such as marriage, that can catapult one back into a faith that had laid dormant for years. The work of the Christian community is always to fan the embers of newly found faith into a reality that can spiritually sustain us in our friendship with Jesus and his Church as adults.
Does that mean that all doubts will fade away when we make faith our own? Absolutely not! Doubts in our faith can often be the catalyst for our faith to grow and mature as we gain deeper insights into the mysterious world of God touching our lives. I dare say, that without doubt, faith can stagnate and grow weak. Doubt can be a motivation for us to study, reflect, ponder and savor the reality of love that stands at the heart of all faith, God’s love for us and our love for God.
Do some folks have more faith than others? I suppose so. However, such envious preoccupations are, in the end, a waste of time. The Good Lord gives the exact amount of faith that each person needs as he invites our love, trust and surrender to his loving purposes in our life.
In the end, faith is intimately bound up with the hopes that sustain us in this life to the life that will come when there will be no need for either faith nor hope, since what we have longed for will be ours for all eternity, love unending.