Oh, Me of Little Faith

One of Jesus’ famous phrases is, “O you of little faith.” I often find myself being one of little faith. It is easy to ignore the blessings bestowed upon us in the daily rush of our lives. Finding any time to recognize God’s hand is a struggle. I would be willing to bet that there are a lot of us who have experienced times in our lives of overwhelming fear that approached panic.


Yet I find comfort knowing that God never forgets us. While we are all very human, and thus prone to forgetting and ignoring much of the world around us, God remains steadfast. We are never forgotten, never ignored, because we are God’s creations – the infants a mother can never forget, as Isaiah beautifully notes.

We may fall into darkness and ignore God’s love. Yet through his son, light will illuminate the love we’ve hidden in darkness. Even creatures of little faith find glorious love in God and his son.

A large crowd is gathered on a mountain, giving rapt attention to the words of Jesus. You're part of the crowd. A baby is crying, but the gentle wind blows phrases your way like "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear . . . why, look at the birds in the sky, they do not sow or reap . . . yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. . . ."

You strain to hear more, as Jesus tells you not to worry about what you are to eat or drink or wear! "Oh you of little faith, Your Heavenly Father knows you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness and all these things will be given you besides. . . . Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."

What wonderfully soothing words. But are they true for us today? Jesus promises that they will come to those who have sufficient faith and trust in Him.

There is a section in Isaiah called "The Book of the Consolation of Israel." The Jews in captivity in Babylon knew that they had wandered away from the Law and that God was punishing them. Even when they returned, they felt that God had abandoned them. So they cried out in their despair, and God answered them immediately in order to give them hope.

He spoke these consoling words, "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you." (Isaiah 49:15) What a "homey" example!

To those who question Jesus' words today when we see such discouraging scenes of starvation and death in countries around the globe, Jesus did not place the whole burden on God the Father. St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that all in the community are "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." Doesn't that remind us that much of the burden is ours?

Remember what St. James (my patron saint) told us: "If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without things needed for the body, what does it profit?"

So, faith by itself has no works, but is dead. ( James 2:14-17) Doesn't that fit with what God said in Isaiah, "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you"?

It was God and the early Christian community who attended the poor and the needy back then. It is still God and today’s community of faith who continues to make the promises of the Sermon on the Mount come at least partially true today.