In
an Iowa farming community, all the townspeople gathered to pray for
rain in the midst of a drought. But only one person brought
an umbrella.
That's faith.
We
go to bed without assurance
of tomorrow, but still we set
the alarm clock.
That's hope.
We
hear about so much misery, but we help others, get married, raise
children. That's love.
Finally,
I saw an interesting thought written on a man’s shirt, which read:
“I
am not 80 years old; I am sweet
16 with 64 years of experience.”
That's attitude.
The
word of God
focuses on three characters in the Book of Genesis: a man, a woman
and a snake. The story explains the problem of evil, how things are
what they are. In the beginning, the Book says, God fashioned a
magnificent universe and created man and woman to enjoy it. They
walked with God, had friendship with God and friendship with one
another.
The
story is highly symbolic. There's the tree of life, like in many
ancient near east stories. But there's another tree, which gives
knowledge of good and evil. That tree symbolizes “divine status.”
Enter the snake, the tempter. It tries to set people against one
another and against God. The man and woman gave into the temptation,
thinking they would become “godlike,” i. e., become
other than the creatures they were. And
so they ate the “forbidden fruit” and thereby lost their
friendship with God and became estranged from one another. And ever
since, although we are intrinsically good, we have a tendency
sometimes to choose evil over good. How else explain world as it is,
especially the violence people do to one another.
But
God didn't leave us to our own devices. God
became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. Through his sacrificial death and
glorious resurrection, the living Christ reestablished our
relationship with God and promised that goodness
ultimately will triumph over evil.
Perhaps
the author may be asking whether we see
God as our friend,
our companion as we face the challenges and decisions of life.
Paul
in today's letter reflects on his own life. His life is like a tent:
here
today, gone tomorrow.
Once a
devout Jew and a rabbi, Paul suddenly on the road to Damascus in
Syria had a visionary experience of the living Christ that turned his
life “upside down.” Thereafter, his one
passion in life
was to proclaim everywhere he went the good news, the Gospel: Jesus
Christ is alive! And because He lives, we live: God abides in us and
we in God. Yes, God
gifted Paul with an incredible faith that empowered him to overcome
all kinds of obstacles, e.g., shipwreck, threats against his life and
imprisonment.
Paul
may be asking us: where do we find purpose
in our lives?
Perhaps the lack of purpose is one of the reasons for the high
suicide rate in the U.S.
In
the Gospel according to Mark, we have a conflict:
between faith in God and a lack thereof.
But
first the Gospel raises the question whether Jesus had brothers and
sisters. The Catholic tradition says no. But Jesus
definitely had cousins.
Why do we say this? Because in
the Aramaic language Jesus spoke, the terms “brother,” “sister”
are applied not
only
to children of the same parents, but also to nephews, nieces,
cousins, half-brothers, and half-sisters.
Now
back to the Gospel. Some of Jesus's relatives think he's crazy. Once
a carpenter, now a preacher and healer. He's lost his mind, so his
relatives thought. On the other hand, the scribes argued he's working
signs and wonders in the name of Satan. Jesus refutes this allegation
with a ridiculous analogy. In fact, attributing the works of God to
Satan is blasphemy. And then Jesus
concludes, who are my brothers and sisters?
They who not
only hear God's word but do it.
We are by nature believers.
Think about the ordinary things we do. A simple example. We just
sat down in the church pew and expected it to support us. We
turn on the house lights, and voila, we have lights. We live by
faith.
Our
Catholic faith is a gift from God that empowers us to have a right
relationship with God
as our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.
Now, faith
is richer and deeper than belief.
Faith invites us to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, to
follow him who is our way to eternal life, our truth who sets us free
from falsehoods, and our light who illuminates the darkness around us
as we journey toward our heavenly dwelling place. Faith is about
connectedness
to the person of Jesus Christ.
It’s about our relationship with God
that we nurture, especially through prayer, liturgical as well as
devotional.
Belief,
on the other hand, is a statement about the essential
truths of our faith
that we proclaim every Sunday (e. g., in our fourth-century Nicene
Creed).
We say: I believe in one God,
despite the many today who experience not the presence, but the
absence of God; despite the many who question the existence of God in
the face of such overwhelming evils as disease, violence, war and
hunger.
Yes, we say: our God is
almighty, maker of heaven and earth. We profess there is an awesome
power completely other and completely beyond us; One who is the cause
as well as guide of everything that is: God, Father Almighty.
And
yes, we believe in one lord, Jesus Christ. The great 19th
century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky in his classic novel, The
Brothers Karamazov,
says: every man/woman must bend his or her knee before someone or
something, e. g., money, fame, power, etc. And so the question is:
What
ultimately drives us? That's what we worship, so says Dostoevsky.
This
Lord, Jesus Christ, for us and for our salvation came down from
heaven. Today
there is so much brokenness on this planet; something is not quite
right. There is hate, lies, injustice, the denial of human rights,
ignorance, violence. This planet cries out for a healer, a
reconciler? And this Jesus who for our sake was crucified, died,
was buried and rose again is indeed our healer, our reconciler, our
pledge of an indescribable life beyond this earthly life.
And
yes, we believe in the Holy Spirit, the lord, the giver of life.
The power of the Spirit is within us. And that Spirit enables us to
take charge of our destiny and do good for others. And we believe in
one, holy, catholic and apostolic community. We acknowledge one
baptism and look toward the resurrection and the life to come.
This
Nicene Creed underscores the essential
content
of our faith; yes, what we believe truly matters. I pray that the
gift of our faith whereby we relate to God, and the content of that
faith which we are about to profess, will empower us, as the prophet
Micah says, to always act
fairly,
to love
tenderly
and walk
humbly with our God.
