Faithfulness to the faith

To the crowd who followed him after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (John 6:26). The miracles our Lord worked have a clear aim: to manifest his divinity, so that we may have faith. Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you?What work do you perform?” (John 6:28-30).

Submitting the will

If we lack the will to believe, a humble disposition of soul, we cannot see God’s wonders: the intellect is confined to a two-dimensional plane, with no sense of the supernatural. That is why when Jesus speaks of the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, his listeners continue to think of earthly bread. They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always” (John 6:34). And when he presents the mystery for their belief in precise terms, with no possibility of escaping its objective supernatural meaning, when he requires an act of theological faith (while giving them sufficient grace to believe), they all walk away. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:66-69).

For you and for me, I now pray for a faith like Peter’s, quae per caritatem operatur (Gal 5:6); which works enlivened by charity. A living faith, unshakable, unhesitating, undiluted, without any shadows, operative.