Standing In The Pouring Rain

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings.

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters,

when you encounter various trials,

for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

And let perseverance be perfect,

so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But if any of you lacks wisdom,

he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly,

and he will be given it.

But he should ask in faith, not doubting,

for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea

that is driven and tossed about by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.

The brother in lowly circumstances 

should take pride in high standing,

and the rich one in his lowliness, 

for he will pass away "like the flower of the field."

For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass,

its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes.

So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits...

James 1: 1-11

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus,

seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.

He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,

"Why does this generation seek a sign?

Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."

Then he left them, got into the boat again,

and went off to the other shore.

Mark 8: 11-13

As we have been working our way through the Gospel of Mark we have noticed that the one thing that each person who received a miracle from Christ exhibited one important characteristic, they believed that Jesus could help them, they had faith in Him.  

What exactly is faith?  This question has been the subject of many contemporary Christian songs.  Michael Card says that faith is hearing with your heart. Michael W. Smith says that faith is standing in the pouring rain and knowing that the sun will shine again. The late Steve Green wrote a song asking that our descendants find us faithful. The late Rich Mullins said of faith “A faith that moves mountains is a faith that expands horizons, it does not bring us into a smaller world full of easy answers, but into a larger one where there is room for wonder.”  Rich also says in his song Creed, "“I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am” 

So it is easy to wax poetically about what faith is. It is easy to illustrate because faith is something that we all have, and I mean even atheists have faith that there is no God.  Faith is what allows us to move forward.  One silly example is that we have faith that the elevator will be there when the door opens.  Today, many people test this by walking into the elevator with their faces buried in their smartphone, hopefully reading Michael the Lesser's blog! 

Faith is so important that the heretics in the sixteenth century made it the most important thing that there was, sola fide was born.  While it is true that we first must have faith, we must be able to demonstrate our faith.  Damien the Leper demonstrated his faith by stepping off of a ship and on to the leper colony at Molokai knowing full well that once his shoe touched the shore, he was there for life and he made that step in faith, willingly and with full knowledge of his possible fate.  Mother Angelica, may she rest in peace, was a woman of great faith.  She exhibited it many times during her long years of faithful ministry.  Once the monastery got into the peanut business.  They roasted peanuts and sold them to a wholesaler.  One day a new wholesaler came to town and he took over the monastery's account and he let it be known that in order for their peanuts to be sold, there would have to be some consideration paid to him so that the monastery account could continue to be properly serviced.  In other words, he wanted a kickback. She told the man that she would not go to hell over peanuts but that he could.  The peanut sales were what was keeping the monastery going but she had faith that God would open another way for her to keep the lights burning and of course, EWTN was born because of her stubborn faith.  

Faith without works is empty and lifeless.  Again Rich Mullins had a song that illustrated that. The song was called "Screen Door." It was done in rap style, very progressive for the eighties, and the keywords were  "Faith without works, Is like a song you can't sing (sing) It's about as useless as A screen door on a submarine…"  So faith is a lot of things.  It is believing in what we cannot see with our eyes.  It is believing just as if we can see with our eyes.  Faith is trusting that what we cannot see but see through the eyes of faith is true because we know that the reason for our faith is God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.  Faith is the first step and the works that faith engenders is the second step.  The Lord says, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life." 

Please remember the poor souls in purgatory.  They need your prayers.  They will appreciate whatever you do for them for all eternity.   Remember, where they are, you might someday be.