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LIVING IN HOPE BY HAVING FAITH IN MIRACLES - stephenkhoo - 07-30-2012 09:51 AM
29 July, 2012, 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
LIVING IN HOPE BY HAVING FAITH IN MIRACLES
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 KGS 4:42-44; EPH 4:1-6; JN 6:1-15
Many of us live in hopeless situations. We are tempted to give up hope easily, especially in the face of an incurable illness, a difficult spouse or in-law, or an incorrigible child who refuses to amend his wayward lifestyle. In such a situation, we wonder whether God exists and if He cares at all. Because of our lack of hope and lack of faith in God, we are tempted to also give up hope on others.
The scripture readings today urge us to have faith and not to allow our hopes to collapse. When he was writing the letter to the Ephesians from prison, St Paul could have abandoned himself to hopelessness about his ministry and even fearful for his life. But he did not. Neither did Jesus when He asked Philip to feed the 5000 and the latter responded negatively. The psalmist proclaims, “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.” What gave them hope to persevere? The psalmist, St Paul and Jesus did not give up hope because they knew that the God they worship is a God who cares for us all.
In no uncertain terms, the scripture readings tell us that God cares. He sends His messengers to remind us of His providential love and even empowers them to work miracles in His name. In the gospel, Jesus fed the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish. And after they had eaten, they collected the pieces left over and it filled twelve hampers with scraps.
Jesus as the great prophet and the compassion of God comes to give us hope. In giving the people food to eat, Jesus illustrates that He did not only come to provide us food to attend to our souls, but He also wants to nurture and heal our bodies as well. Salvation for Jesus is always an integral reality. He comes to supply us both spiritual and temporal food. Jesus wants to heal us both in body and soul. It is very significant that He did not simply proclaim the Good News that God loves us but after preaching, He concretized this love of God by feeding the people with the Bread of life. Truly, Jesus in His ministry always accompanied His preaching with healing and miracles.
But if our hope is to be strong, it requires faith. What is this faith that is required of us? Faith is more than just trusting and relying on Jesus to heal and feed us. It requires our cooperation as well. When Jesus told Philip to feed the people, He said it partly in jest but also to test him and draw out his faith. Faith is not just a passive surrender to the Lord. It means that we must use whatever resources we have and offer them to the Lord. The Lord does not want us to receive cheap grace. He wants us to show our sincerity of heart and our willingness to trust and cooperate with His grace. Hence, He asked Philip to feed them. Just as bread and wine are required to be transformed to His body and blood, so too, Jesus would require that we give what we can.
The theological axiom, grace does not destroy but perfects nature is a good reminder of how God’s grace works in and through us. Although Jesus did not expect the disciples to feed a crowd of 5000 with five barely loaves and two fish, He wanted them to have enough faith to surrender the little they had to God first. Unless we are willing to surrender all that we have, God will not be able to work great miracles in us. Before He could turn water into wine, Jesus needed the water first. In the same way, He asked for the little bread so that He could multiply for the people.
Expectant faith demands that we work with God rather than simply do nothing and expect God to do everything. Faith requires surrender. By believing in faith, we allow miracles to happen in our lives. Those who refuse to surrender because of the lack of faith, hinder God from working miracles in their lives. So if we want the Lord to heal us or make us whole, then we must offer our entire body and soul, our mind and heart, our resources to the Lord. Like Andrew, if we offer our paltry resources to the Lord, He can use us all for mighty works. Of course, by ourselves we can do nothing. He is the vine, we are the branches. With Him, the word, “impossible” does not exist in His vocabulary. “For God, everything is possible.” (Mt 19:26) When we place everything into Christ’s hands, He will do with us far more than we can imagine.
For us who have come to recognize Christ as our Hope through faith, this faith must also be demonstrated in love. This is what St Paul wrote, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal 5:6) In turn, we must offer hope to people everywhere, our loved ones, our friends, colleagues and those who come to us. Like Jesus who helped the disciples to see hope in every situation, even with five loaves and two fish, we too must do the same.
We must remember that often God wants to heal us but not always directly but through our fellowmen. We must employ all the resources we have for the good of others. Just as God has bestowed the power of miracles to the prophets and the apostles when He sent them out to preach, so too He continues to bless us with different charisms, whether it is the gift of healing, gifts of compassion and love for us to reach out to others, etc. St Paul reminds us that “there is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, through all and within all.” As the Body of Christ, we are called to be His feet and hands, His face and mouth to others, just as the disciples helped Jesus to distribute the bread and collect back the leftovers. Together with Jesus as our Head and joined to His Body, we must make Jesus present through our mutual ministering to each other.
We are called to be generous and self-sacrificing, like the boy who came forward in a spirit of self-sacrifice. He was generous to share with everyone the little he had. We too must step forward to serve the Church, the Body of Christ, ministering to Christ’s body, the People of God through whatever resources and time that the Lord has blessed us with. We must avoid an attitude of coming to church only to get things from the Lord but do not share what the Lord has blessed us with, be it health, wealth or resources. To partake in faith at the Eucharistic table means that we recognize our brothers and sisters as the Body of Christ and therefore we must minister to them, giving them love and life, thereby inspiring hope in those who find their lot in life difficult or are going through a rough patch.
Indeed, it is said that the nature of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand need not necessarily have been Jesus literally multiplying the bread, but it could also be that the act of sharing the five loaves and two fish inspired the crowd to share with others what they brought in their baskets. Love begets love. Faith begets faith. So the act of giving, especially from our meager resources, will also inspire others to give out of their riches and plenty. It is said that there is never a lack of resources in the world; just a lack of faith and love. Charity and compassion can evoke desires and hopes beyond our imagination.
As Christians, we must be like Jesus and not compromise our hopes and settle for something that is second best. It was for this reason that Jesus challenged Philip and Andrew to feed the crowd. He wanted us to have bigger dreams and endless hopes rather than settling for the present reality. Jesus always hopes for the best and sees the best in us even when we fail Him. He only saw the best in the weaknesses and failures in love of Peter and Judas and the rest of the apostles. The story of the prodigal son speaks volumes about God’s love and compassion. He saw the goodness in Zacchaeus when others could not. And He was not wrong. Zacchaeus gave away his money to the poor. So too, Peter became His first Pope. The apostles, except for Judas, all eventually gave their lives for Christ and the gospel.
To have such hope in people and appeal to the best in others, we must believe in miracles. Believing in the impossible is the height of faith. We cannot encourage others and continue to have faith in them if we do not believe in miracles. There can be extraordinary miracles in our lives, like healing of an incurable disease or the transformation of someone whom society has given up hope on. There can be ordinary miracles when we experience the compassion and love of God through the daily events of life in our work and in relationship. Instead of complaining, fretting, getting upset, bemoaning our miseries and blaming God for our misfortunes, St Paul urges us to trust in the Lord.
Yes, if we want to give hope to others, we must first be hopeful people ourselves, a hope that is not founded on human strength but most of all in the Eucharistic Lord. The Eucharist is the miracle par excellence after the Incarnation. Hence, we are called to come to Jesus the Eucharistic Bread of life to find strength. Only with a faith that is trusting, cooperative, expressed in love, a faith in miracles and above all, faith in the miracle of the Eucharistic Lord, can we offer our meager gifts to the Lord for His people and allow the Lord to work miracles in our lives. It is a faith that tells us that nothing is impossible for God to do in our lives.
Written by Rev. Fr. William Goh