Easter Sunday 20.4.14 Degrees of belief
The Easter events are dramatic yet fail to make an impact on many people.
How can such things fall on deaf ears or hard hearts? The problem is essentially lack of faith. And that problem is caused essentially by sin.
If we had obeyed Almighty God from the first moment of creation there would be no problem. We would have retained a much stronger sense of God’s reality and His closeness to us. We would never think of disobeying Him because we would see no reason to disobey. We would accept as obvious that whatever God wanted for us was the best thing possible, so we would go along with that.
But sin entered the world and caused division between man and God. From the time of the original sin our judgment has been warped; our mind clouded, our will weakened.
From that cloudy and weak position it is hard for us to understand the ways of God, so we continue to disobey Him and this creates further chaos and confusion, and leads to even less faith.
So we cling to the ‘certainties’ we have, and reject the promises of some far-off happiness. We cling to the way we live not believing change is possible. We despair of anything much better than we have known so far.
Thus the Salvation brought by Jesus Christ has never really had full impact on the world. Jesus has burst forth from the tomb but there has not been an equivalent reaction from the world outside the tomb.
We also, though we believe in Him, also find a certain fogginess in our faith, caused by our own sin, and not helped by the general moral chaos of the world around us. It is hard for us too to have a clear, absolute and definite faith.
Sometimes we believe Him, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we obey Him, sometimes we don't.
This is not the complete response required by the event itself which is as absolute as they come. To go from such a death to such a life in less than two days is as clear cut a demonstration of God’s power as anyone could wish.
It is a circular problem. We do not believe because we have sinned. We will not stop sinning unless we believe more.
How do we get to the place where we believe fully and do not sin at all?
Only by the grace of God can we go that extra distance.
So we ask Our Lord to give us that extra burst of faith, that love of Him, that clarity and certainty, whereby we will not doubt Him, and discover the freedom from sin that He offers us.
He does not just forgive sin; He sets us free from it – such that we have no further attraction to it.
We can do this today. We don't have to wait till a final illness, or till we go to Purgatory to work all this out. Now is a good time!
No more shilly-shallying, no more half in- half out.
Lord, help my unbelief, as the man said. My Lord and my God, as Thomas said.
Each of us can pray for our own self. And of course we don't mind praying the same thing for all the people out there, wherever each one is on the spectrum of faith. Everyone needs help.
Faith is available on demand. It does not cost anything. It just needs a little resolution to explore more deeply. Lord, I will take You seriously, this time, if I have been avoiding You for the last few years (or decades).
If a few lead the way, others will follow.
It has not been all bad so far. There have been many saints, many movements of renewal in our 2000 year history. You win some you lose some. We just want to win a lot more of them.
Lord, help me to believe it all with my heart and soul, not just with my mind. Amen.
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