This is why there is a close relationship between Faith and Hope. Hope is such an important part of our Faith life. We see this as we reflect upon our own faith journey. At the beginning, we want everything to go well. If things go wrong, we begin to doubt that God is with us and we begin to complain to God, asking God to remove these troubles from our life. Some even think that God is displeased with us when we have bad things happen to us. It’s difficult to walk by Faith when things are not going well. This is when we need to Hope against hope. Not only do we need to continue to believe that God is there for us, but we also need to Hope that the troubles we have will not delay God’s promise. When we lose Faith and when we lose Hope, we lose our way, we give in to temptations that surround us, and we make bad decisions that lead us to hopelessness. Even then, God will be faithful and call us back to where we belong.
Our Lord tells us in the gospel (Luke 12: 8-12) that when we are brought before the authorities to answer for our faith in Christ, we are not to worry about what to say, because the Holy Spirit will be our guide. In today's world most of us will never be dragged before the authorities on this account (although it seems more and more likely these days), but we do sometimes find ourselves confronted by friends, coworkers or even family who strongly question our beliefs.
What is your response? As Christ teaches in this gospel, it should come to us through the Holy Spirit as it has to others for ages. One way to be sure it is the Holy Spirit is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts, words and actions.
I have often been amazed at how believers spoke when placed in the most terrible spot. Take the first martyr (and, of course, one of my favorite saints), Saint Stephen. He was a relatively new Christian and did not have the benefit of years of Christian teaching. But when faced with certain death, He spoke as powerfully as the Lord Himself. This has been repeated through the ages as believers have been tortured and killed for their beliefs and always, they were able to speak with authority and with faith.
Faith is reflective action, not merely words. Do we acknowledge Jesus if we attend Mass on Sunday and ignore those around us who are hungry? Do we acknowledge Jesus if we follow the rule of not stealing someone’s goods and then don’t act to change our economic systems so there is a fairer distribution of goods? (CCC 2408). Do we acknowledge Jesus if we refrain from physically harming another person and yet don’t act to change our society so domestic and other acts of violence are reduced?
We manifest faith by acting on our beliefs, by living lives that are consistent with what we say is important to us, and by reflecting on our actions (or lack of actions) and questioning whether our motives and our directions are consistent with what we hear as God’s call to us. We acknowledge Jesus by following His call to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to do social justice in this life. We know that if we do, Jesus will acknowledge us in the next.
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