Father Peter John Cameron, O.P.
Pope Benedict XVI says that “faith means resisting the brute
force that would otherwise pull us under.”
The
wind that seems to be against us is in fact a grace that moves us to face what
really matters. The wind symbolizes life, reality. In his mercy, Jesus draws us
to the knowledge of him through what he allows to happen in life from moment to
moment… even/especially the tumultuous things.
Very often the reason why we get lukewarm regarding faith is because we do not take the real needs of our life seriously. Instead, we fill our life with distractions and any number of useless things. The lack of urgency in life makes us listless, so much so that we begin to doubt if there are any real answers to the pressing questions of life.
The
wind that seems to be against us is in fact a grace that moves us to face what
really matters. The wind symbolizes life, reality. In his mercy, Jesus draws us
to the knowledge of him through what he allows to happen in life from moment to
moment… even/especially the tumultuous things.
Pope Benedict writes that “the essence of faith is that I do
not meet with something that has been thought up, but that… something meets me
which is greater than anything we can think of for ourselves.” Walking across the
sea to meet the disciples comes Something Greater.
The Presence challenges us to go beyond what “we can think
of for ourselves.” Faith begins in the face of an event that provokes our
reason unlike other things in life. The emergency prompts (us) to recognize
what (we) are really looking for in life. Who can prevent the storms in life?
No one. But to be able to walk with Jesus over the very things that would sink
us? That is what our hearts are waiting for. Faith is not something optional;
our hearts are made to await the Mystery who comes to meet us in the
overwhelming circumstances of life.
Faith does not start from within but from without – from an
exceptional happening, a fact that moves us on every level. This happening is
something that seems both desirable and impossible at the same time… like Jesus
walking on water.
Even when we fail by losing focus, the seriousness of our
needs kicks in anew. This brings us back to the awareness of how indispensible
faith is. For the only thing adequate to answer our boundless need is the One
who unfailingly stretches out his hand and catches us. As Pope Benedict puts
it, “Faith means fellowship with him who has the… power… that draws us up, that
holds us fast, that carries us safely over the elements of death.”
We pray for the grace to resist the brute force that would
pull us under by keeping our eyes on the One who gave us our needs. We can rely
on the wisdom of Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.:
“Our faith is never more alive than when what we experience through our senses contradicts and tries to destroy it. The life of faith is the untiring pursuit of God through all that disguises and disfigures him… You are seeking for secret ways of belonging to God but there is only one: making use of whatever he offers you.”
No comments:
Post a Comment