Gotta Have Faith

Letting faith help us live at a higher pitch of life

11/13/2017

Luke 17:1-6 Jesus said to his disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him." And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."

       The most fundamental fact of Christianity is faith, and yet faith propels a person to go far beyond the facts. Faith is the core of our Christian life. After all, the singer George Michael released a hit song in 1987 called “Gotta Have Faith,” which he both wrote and performed. We all “gotta have faith,” but what precisely is faith? The two places we should immediately turn for an answer are the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Hebrews 11:1 says: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” The Catechism states, close to the start of the book, that: “By faith, man completely submits his intellect and will to God” (Catechism, 143). These two definitions from Scripture and Tradition are well worth our prayer and pondering.

        But may I be so bold as to suggest to you my personal definition of faith? I would say faith is threefold: “to see the invisible, to do the impossible and to achieve the unattainable.” What does that mean? Well, to see the invisible means faith is a kind of x-ray vision to go beyond what meets the eyes, the visible world, and see spiritual realities like God, angels, grace, heaven and hell. See the invisible. Secondly, faith helps you to do the impossible, and nothing feels more impossible than to love the unlovable. To put it more pointedly, to love your ex-spouse after a bitter divorce. Faith lets you love like that, pretty impossible. And third, faith allows you to achieve the unattainable, that is, to enjoy eternal life. This third aspect of faith is really the culmination of the first two. After seeing the invisible and doing the impossible, faith give us peace of mind that we may one day be at home in heaven with our family and friends who also walked by faith. Bishop Robert Barron describes this as “living at a higher pitch” of life, one step above everyone who lacks faith. That’s the level at which Jesus lived, especially after his resurrection, but also before he rose from the dead. To live like Jesus lived - at that higher pitch - is why we “gotta have faith.”

        In the gospel today, the apostles pray for something that must have been music to Jesus’ ears. They say, “Lord, increase our faith.” Jesus must have been thinking: “Finally, you get it! Faith makes all the difference.” He goes on to explain: “If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this Mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Now, Jesus is not saying literally to do that; faith is not a bulldozer. Rather, he’s using hyperbole, exaggeration, to make his point: faith allows you to do the impossible, the unimaginable, namely, to love your enemies, which by the way, is a lot harder than moving a Mulberry tree with your mind. That is the “higher pitch” at which Jesus lived and to which the apostles aspired when they desired an increase of faith. They realized they “gotta have faith.”

         Here are a few further examples of the difference faith makes, and why we too should pray like the apostles, “increase our faith.” Faith allows you to see the invisible, especially in the sacraments. When you have faith, you don’t come to Mass, for instance, to satisfy your senses – to hear a good homily, to see pretty stained glass – but to hear the Word of God and to be in Holy Communion with Christ. When you come to Mass without stirring homilies and sparkling stained-glass, you see the invisible that faith affords you. Secondly, faith lets you do the impossible, that is, to love beyond human limits.  That is why men become priests and forfeit marriage and family. Celibacy is not a lack of love; it’s love at a higher pitch and it certainly seems impossible to a sex-saturated culture like ours. I am convinced the shortage of priests is really a crisis of faith.

        And third, faith helps us to achieve the unattainable, namely, heaven. Faith gives us peace and patience to pray for those who have died and to wait patiently for our turn to “shuffle off this mortal coil” as Hamlet said. I have several elderly friends who are widows and long to leave the world, and be reunited with their loved ones. That reunion seems “unattainable.” But faith teaches them (and us) that the “communion of saints” is already achieving the unattainable - we are already with them - and such faith gives us peace.

         George Michael was right: you “gotta have faith.” Why? Well, because faith elevates you to live at a higher pitch of life.  After all, George Michael knew something about pitch.

Praised be Jesus Christ!