FAITH AND TRUST

What does it mean to be a person of faith? I think it means more than just believing the official teachings of the church. It’s more than the dogged loyalty of going through the motions of Mass on Sundays. In fact, since the Pandemic, many former church-goers are happy to watch Mass on television or online in lieu of being with the community at a live Mass in church.

Mass is a community prayer, an action we do together with others – neighbours, family, friends, acquaintances, and maybe some new faces. It’s common nowadays to find people in their nineties at Mass on Sundays as well as kids who have not yet celebrated first communion – and everyone in between. Everyone is praying in their own way even if many don’t understand the ritual. Mass is a communal act of faith, prayer and worship.

Celebrating Mass is not really about watching on a screen the performance of a ritual in a distant church. That experience has its value, and it was the only way for people to stay in touch during the Pandemic. And today, it is the only way for the sick and homebound to stay in touch. But watching Mass at home on television is not the same thing as taking an active part in the prayer of the community. “Whoever eats me will draw life from me” – John 6:57.

I have noticed in people of faith a certain calmness about life – a trustful feeling that if things go wrong, it’s not the end of the world. They have an unspoken sense of trust in God, in someone greater than themselves who will hold them together. It is like the faith Jesus praises as salvation. In the gospels we find the sick and the crippled are often healed and made whole again when they connect in trust with Christ – cf. Lk 8:13, Mk 10:52.

Fr. QQ – 16/08/2024

 

“All shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well; for there is a force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and never lets us go.”  Attributed to Mother Julian of Norwich.