Simple (?) Faith

Universal health care?  Immigration reform?  Economic recovery and increased employment?   No matter what your political perspective, it's hard to imagine these happening soon.  Anyone that thinks it's possible is crazy. "Too much corruption and dishonesty and greed," "You don't know human nature," or "I'm a realist- it'll never happen".

Sometimes, it’s hard to have faith. We are rational, scientific, and want tangible proof or explanations for everything.  But the centurion in Matthew’s gospel (Matt 8:5-11) was not like this - he had incredible faith in Jesus.  He came to Jesus, humbled, and just stated a fact, “my servant is suffering”.  He didn't ask Jesus to cure him, he just had faith that Jesus would know what needed to be done.  Many of us, myself included, seem to think we know what we need.  Instead of telling Jesus how it is, and trusting that He will provide and care for us, we ask for things.  We ask for that new job, for money, for things that we think will make us happy.  But that’s not what we’re called to do.  We must have faith that Jesus has the right answers and the right timing.  We might not know what we really need, or when something should happen.  As scary as it is, we need to trust that our loving God will take care of us, because He knows what’s best for us.  Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

After the centurion told Jesus about his ill servant, Jesus said that He would come and cure him.  The centurion was humbled and said, “Lord, I am not worthy…but only say the word and my servant will be healed”.  Catholics say similar words every Sunday before communion, but maybe we need to think about this more often.  It’s so easy to become arrogant and think highly of ourselves, but we need to remember to humble ourselves in recognition of God.  We are all sinners.  We all fall down.  We all struggle. Even Pope Francis recently said he avails himself of the Sacrament of Reconciliation every 2 weeks!   Are we worthy of Someone so loving, so merciful, so awesome?  Jesus thinks so.  Even though we fall, we have a Father who loves us more than we can imagine.  And he is calling us to put faith in Him.  This is what the centurion did.  He trusted that Jesus could heal his servant even though they weren’t even in the same room.  He had faith.  And look what happened: his servant was healed.  So today, we are called to humble ourselves and truly look at the faith we have in Jesus.  We have to trust that He will take care of us, even if at the time it seems like He isn’t answering our prayers.  And we have to be aware of God’s presence in our life.  Look at the events of today, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand what they tell you about God’s presence.  Open your heart and look for life’s miracles.