FAITH

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, the liturgy of the day presents us with a God who is faithful, a God who cares for his people.

 We, as a human race, for the past year and a half, are going through times that we have never seen before. A sense of anxiety, sorrow, , doubt, death and sense of abandonment has sometime or the other crossed our minds. Sense of uncertainty has been an essential character of this time of Pandemic, where probably some of us,  who are coming from other lands, here for earning our livelihoods were/are not fully sure whether we would go back home safely. There are times when some of us went through faith crisis, where we questioned God and his ability. As a human race we have been going through an experience of wilderness.

And yet here we are on Sunday morning to celebrate the paschal mysteries of the Lord and it is the faith that has brought us here as one community of believers. During this short reflection I would reflect with you on the aspect of Faith.

Let us have a glance at the readings of the day.

In the first reading taken from the book of Kings, we see a sad and a rather depressed prophet Elijah. There were many triumphs that Elijah had before this instance and many more follow after this. And yet here is Elijah, in the wilderness, lost and sad for reasons unknown.

The Hebrew word for the English WILDERNESS is MIDBAR.

Midbar means wilderness. If you take away the first letter from this word – MIDBAR, what remains is DABAR. DABAR in means the word of God. Just as within the word WILDERNESS, the word – WORD of GOD (in Hebrew) resides, so is the case with human-divine encounter. It is in the wilderness or at the time of wilderness, one feels, senses and hears the word of God strongly. Rightly so, a sad Elijah meets the divine assistance, meets Gods care in the wilderness as angels bring him food.

The gospel reading continues the thread of the bread of life, what we heard the last week. In today’s gospel, people doubt at Jesus, pointing to his ordinary background. But Jesus stresses on the point that anyone who believes in him, will live eternally. Evangelists through the imagery of the bread of life present Jesus as the life giver, life promoter.

 I began this reflection saying it is the FAITH that has brought us together this morning. What does faith mean? There are several definitions, articles and books I have read about FAITH but nothing convinced me as much as the witness of an old poor sickly helpless woman in a backward village in India, during my theological studies.

As part of preparations to my contextual theological studies, I was placed in a poor village for a month. I was moving from house to house and listening to the stories of people; stories that were full of  pains and struggles, stories of their unfulfilled dreams and desires, and questions that probably had no easy answers. One thing that I kept repeating, whenever I met someone who was struggling, ‘these things will pass away; your situation would change…you will be fine’

On that Tuesday afternoon, as I was walking in the hot sun, I came across a small hut, where an aged lady and her daughter lived. Gowramma, an aged woman, welcomed me to her small hut. As we began our conversation, she opened the pages of her life. She had lost her husband years ago. Despite the dire poverty she was in, somehow she had managed to give two of the three daughters in marriage. Her life was nothing but a saga of suffering.

 As Gowramma was quite weak and not able to work as before, her youngest daughter was somehow managing the house by working petty jobs here and there. Talking to this woman, I learnt that she had absolutely no one to support and help except that of her youngest daughter. But that daughter was also to leave her and go, as her marriage was fixed. Having understood the situation it was clear  that none of her three daughters were in a position to take care of her. I was haunted with question of Gowramma’s future. I was struck: What’s next? My mind was overwhelmed with the questions of her tomorrow.

Gathering everything together, though I felt I should not, I still asked, “Gowramma, what about your future? Who will take care of you? Who is there for you?” She burst into tears. The tears that she probably was trying to hide until then.  I was taken a back for asking such a question. May be this question was haunting her too.

Trying to sympathize, I thought of repeating the same slogan, which I used to do in other houses. But…

Moments later, gathering herself, Gowramma opened her mouth, uttering, “The God who gave me this life, the God who created me, will never let me down, will never abandon me.” Her voice was shivering; tears were still flowing in her eyes, but no doubt, her words were filled with tremendous amount of faith. She had true unshakable FAITH.

One of the crucial moments in the in the history of God’s chosen people is the event of Exodus. At a particular point escaping from the clutches of Pharaoh, people of Israel along with Moses found themselves before the Red Sea. There was a huge army of Pharaoh behind them and a vast Sea before them. Probably, they , saw for a moment death all over, death behind them and death before them. But trusting in the Lord fully, trusting that their God will never abandon them, they put their foot forward and the Lord opened the immense sea for them and made them walk safely to the promised land, right  in the middle of the sea. There are times in our lives too my friends, when we too are like Israelites before the Red Sea.

Coming back to the question, what then is Faith? I believe Faith is a deep conviction in one’s heart that God is with him or her and God will never abandon her or him. And the history of  Israel and the first reading of the day confirm this claim.

In the second reading of the day St Paul highlights how should the followers of Jesus be, how should a person of Faith be?  He invites us to live as the children of God, kind and compassionate. Speaking in the same line, the letter to James states that Faith that we have, needs to be expressed  and  lived our through works.

The Faith that we profess and celebrate within the four walls of a church need to be lived in our daily lives.

There was once a village and in that village there was a forest. And in the forest there was a little bird. One evening there was fire in the forest. Everyone ran to save one’s own life, except this little bird. This little bird was carrying drops of water with its little beak and was pouring on the fire. Someone stopped the bird and asked: What a foolish thing are you doing? Do you think with these few drops of water you can quench this fire? First go and save your life, lest you will be burnt in this fire and will die.  The little bird replied, I do not know whether I can put off this huge fire or not. But the very purpose for which I am created is to put off the fire and promote life, to give life.

My brothers, my sisters, we too are invited by our very creation, to be life givers wherever we are. To live our faith is to be a life giver, life promoter with our little acts of kindness.

As we move on with life let take time to think over two simple questions:

1.     Do I have faith? Do I truly, deep in my heart believe that the Lord who created me is always with me and will never abandon me?

2.     How do I live my faith in my daily life?