What is faith?

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This word faith is a very interesting word. It is a word that is often banded around in many different areas of life. Let us look and see how we might use it. We have faith in other people, faith in our football or Rugby team that they might actually win this may be classed as blind faith, We have faith in the chair that we sit that it will take our weight and will not full from underneath us. But is this real faith or is it something different?

At the moment we are engaged in the year of faith. It is a year of deepening our relationship with the person of Jesus. It is a year where we can learn a little more about our own faith. There are maybe many different things that in our Catholic faith we do not agree with. We find hard to follow.  This is where we can see the Gospel message today. Bartimaeus a blind man was scolded by the people around him. But, he was asked to have “Courage.”

This then is the first thing that we need to have courage is an important attribute to have in our faith. The one thing that I think that we may have lost in the Christian religion is this courage. We have almost gone the other way by apologizing for our faith we fail to have the courage to stand up for what we believe. I firmly believe that if we do not stand up and be counted then we are failing in our duty as Christians.

 Notice also that Bartimaeus is asked to have courage by his friends. This shows us that we need to be supported by our friends in our faith by their prayers and encouragement.

 Sometimes we need to stand up for our faith: Remember the case with Ann Widdecombe sometime ago who stood up for the woman who wanted to wear cross and a chain to work. So when we do stand up for what  we believe it even makes the national news and is a debate about it. We need courage because we live in a world that is lacking the faith that we in this Church have.
The other thing that we do not do very well is to have the sight to see where faith has worked in the world and the fruits of the faith. In the psalm we recite “What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.” And yet do we really believe that the Lord has done great works for us? Or are we blind to the Lord’s work. Often in my own life I get glimpses of the wonders the Lord has done for others but find it hard to find it for myself. I need to be reminded of the great works the Lord has done in my own life.

So then what can we say the word faith is? So faith then is God’s unconditional love for us and our tentative response.  

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