Editorial
The Blessedness of
the Believer
The one who proclaims the
faith must be a believer. Faith is the breath that sustains us in the spiritual
life. The life of faith reflects our intimate relationship with our Creator.
When we are unable to breathe in the pure air of faith, our existence on
the spiritual level is endangered. It is only when we have the inner dispositions
that nourish an authentic faith in God, that we can proclaim our faith
in him by our life.
When we depend on God's
paternal providence, without succumbing to despair in the depths of a sea
of helplessness, we prove the extent and depth of our faith. This unlimited
confidence arises in us when we are convinced that our God will never abandon
us. When we let the intense love of God grow in us, we are ready to accept
everything that he promises us. Through the prophet Isaiah he says, "If
you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all" (Is 7:9).
Hope, expectation, trust
and love combine to give us faith. A true picture of this faith is seen
in Abraham's unalloyed trust in God's promises. Whatever he might have
to forgo in order to listen to God's voice and plunge into the unknown
and the difficult, he was ready. We see in him the father of believers
who wait endlessly for the realisation of God's promises without ever turning
back. Nothing was an obstacle to this surrender to God's will-neither land
nor property, home nor family. Noah, who listened for God's voice, built
the ark and waited to be saved from the coming deluge and did not attempt
to measure God's ways or reject them with his reason. Abraham and Noah
relied on God's word totally. Those, who do not have faith in God, consider
his word as meaningless. The man who does not believe in God's truth and
eternal goodness, considers him a deceiver. Our ancient patriarchs who
maintained an unshakeable faith even in the midst of seeming impossibilities,
have shown to succeeding generations that God's fidelity to the children
of men is steadfast and true.
St Paul says in his letter
to the Hebrews: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received
approval" (Heb 11:1-2). When we receive the insight that God can be
believed without any reservation or limitations, we too shall be led to
the indefinable divine dimensions of a life of faith. When Jesus met St
Thomas for the first time after his resurrection, he said, "Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have come to believe" (Jn 20:29). Jesus is here reminding him
that the faith of his followers should not be confined to the external
aspects of seeing.Through the proclamation of a faith-based lifestyle,
Jesus is exhorting all who are buried in despair with no hope in the goodness
of God's plan, with eyes looking into nothingness, to enter eternal life
through faith. When this faith is received as a gift, the power of healing
comes into play and those who believe are healed. Jesus declared, "Did
I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"(Jn
11:40). To see the glory of God is immeasurable bliss. That is how
faith becomes blessedness.
Let us enter into this blessed
experience. Thus let us prepare our lives for the intervention of a God
who shows unbounded fidelity to man, for Jesus has said, "All things
can be done for the one who believes"(Mk 9:23).
-Editor