There is a curious element of faith relevant to this Sunday’s Gospel. People in need of food had sought out Jesus to fill that need. Jesus did fill it when he blessed, broke, and shared five loaves and two fishes to feed over 5,000 people. Some of the people want more though. They follow Jesus to get it. Jesus, however, is not inclined to be a bread making machine. He prompts the people to recognize that they have a deeper need; the need to have faith in a greater Power. Unfortunately, it seems this batch of followers is not inclined toward such belief. They need evidence, a sign. They need to be certain that Jesus can do something for them before they will believe in him.
If a person or a whole group of people has the need to be certain then they are indicating they do not have faith. Certitude and faith do not exist together. Faith is relinquishing the need for certitude and is instead a willingness to trust. For example, let us consider relinquish certainty about another person. It does not mean we are relinquishing our intelligence and a host of other virtues in relationship to them. What we do is add to these virtues the virtue of trust. We are willing to take a leap of faith; to believe in them, their soul, their character. We believe in their attentive love and trust for us amidst circumstances of confusion, change, or questions that arise in our lives together. Are we willing to believe anew in them each and every day? It is the nature of a loving marriage. Spouses in such a marriage do not require from their partner certitude, evidence for faith but, instead, give their trust to their partner. In a loving marriage, trust is being vulnerable, with another who is vulnerable. It is the nature of a faithful life. We grow beyond the need for certitude and learn to trust in a greater Power of communion, love, and healing – because we are contributing to that greater Power. We contribute whatever our relationships because we believe it is good for all our relationships, for the world. Unfortunately, it is becoming apparent that certitude is replacing faith as the foundation of institutional christian belief. The most obvious example of this is a self-titled Christian’s need to be saved. Needing to be certain about your salvation is admitting that you don’t believe your God actually loves you. You don’t believe in a God who trusts you, or anybody else, amidst the confusion, change, and questions that arise in your lives together. It’s like an unloving marriage in which a partner, in this case God, requires evidence from you. Evidence comes in the form of a stepped plan of salvation you need to fulfill for God. The first step is needing to admit you are a sinner (It is an admission God loves conditionally). Second, you need to repent from your sin (Start earning your partner God’s love). Third, you need to proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior (Do not witness Jesus’ life but instead use Jesus’ death to fill your need to be saved). Fourth, you need to stay faithful and, if you are not, keep repenting and begging for mercy from your unloving and untrusting God so he doesn’t condemn you to hell (A sure sign of an abusive relationship).
The next time we feel the need to be certain of salvation from an abusive deity we can instead share our trust in a loving God.
Prayer: Spirit of Love, I trust.
Question: What would happen if I stopped believing in a formula and started trusting a loving Spirit?
August 2 2015 John 6:24-35 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time