Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
I believe. Help my unbelief! A father's plea to Christ for the healing of a son in distress—one of the most anguished statements in the Gospels because it is one of the most honest. With every fraternal bone in his body, he wants to believe in toto but to no avail---faith seems to be a Catch-22.
John Paul II wrote of today's readings that “our faith must be a sign of contradiction for the world.”
Our faith is a sign of contradiction---To live we must die. To rule is to serve. To be first is to be last. To become rich is to become poor. To be wise is to be fools.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction when prayer isn't answered. Questions confusion, and uncertainty remain and God seems awfully quiet about it.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction, however strong or weak, because our faith is incomplete. There is no safe landing place this side of heaven. There is no certitude in which we rest.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contraction uniting us with great saints--- Augustine, Joan of Arc, Ignatius, Xavier, Teresa of Avila, Paul of the Cross, Mother Seton, the Little Flower, John XXIII, Padre Pio, Mother Teresa---not to mention all twelve apostles and Pope Francis, too. All knew intimately the contrary nature of faith because they all wrestled with doubt.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction requiring our efforts yet ultimately dependent on God's grace. We have a role but God does, too. And God's time might not be our time.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction centered on a Jesus wrestling with his Father in the desert and at Gethsemane---and through the abandonment of the cross.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction that accepts doubt and faith as two sides of the same coin.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction acknowledging life as sacrament---a passionate and holy perspective, while conversely experiencing life as messy, unpredictable, and unfair. God seems, sometimes, to have flown the coup.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction because we are free to screw up and sometimes badly--- yet simultaneously life's a dance with God in the lead.
I believe. Help my unbelief! Our faith is a contradiction climaxing with one word: surrender. We are not in control. Ever. In the end surrendering to our good and gracious God is what we all must do.
“A life of faith is more like wrestling alone in the middle of the night with a God who won't let go” (Karl Barth).
Enjoy the tussle. God surely does.
Timothy J. Cronin