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What
Difference Does Faith Make?
February 16, 2003
Fr. George Smiga
Corinthians
10:31-33
Every
so often it is important for us to ask the BIG question. What
difference does it make to have faith in Jesus Christ? How
can we tell the difference between a person who has faith
and a person who does not? This is an important question.
Because if the believer and the non-believer look exactly
the same, if we cannot find some way to distinguish the one
from the other, then faith is without value. Faith, if it
is to have authority, must somehow make a difference, an impact
upon the way we live.
The apostle
Paul certainly believed in the centrality of faith. In today's
second reading he says, "Whether you eat, or whether
you drink or what ever you do, do everything for the glory
of God." Paul believes that faith should influence every
aspect of our lives. It should affect the way that we love,
the way that we work, the decisions that we make, the clothes
that we wear, the music that we hear. It should influence
the way we brush our teeth. Paul believes that faith is to
influence everything we do.
So again
comes the question: What difference does this faith make in
every area of our lives? Now our first inclination might be
to say that faith make us better people. Yet I doubt that
our experience proves this. I do not find Christian believers
more loving or more just or more generous than many other
segments of our society.
In fact
the difference in being a Christian is not to be found in
our actions. It is to be found in God's actions. What makes
us different is not what we do or fail to do but what we believe
God is doing. And what do we believe that God is doing? We
believe that through the death and resurrection of Jesus,
God is saving the world. We believe that even though Jesus
suffered a violent and unjust death of a criminal, God raised
him up and made him Messiah and Lord and that through Jesus
Christ God continues to destroy evil and to establish God's
Kingdom in our midst. That is what we believe God is doing.
Believing that is what makes Christians different.
For that
belief gives us an unshakable foundation for hope. Hope is
the answer to my original question. It is this hope that sets
us apart. Christians believe that through the resurrection
of Jesus there is reason to hope in every circumstance. You
see, Christian hope is not based on our goodness or on the
wisdom of our political or religious leaders. It is not based
on the achievements of science or the accomplishments of our
culture. Christian hope is founded on the action of God, the
same action that we believe raised Jesus up from the dead.
Christian hope is not exist only when things are going well.
Christian hope continues to be present even when things are
falling apart. This is why Christians continue to hope even
in the face of sickness and death, even as we stand on the
brink of war, even when the people we trust betray us, or
our leaders make faulty and disastrous decisions.
Even when
there is so much evidence to the contrary, Christians continue
to look for goodness and for reasons to celebrate because
we believe that God is still active in the world. You all
know the common phrase: "I'll believe it, when I see
it." Christian faith turns that around. Christians say:
"I'll see it, when I believe it." Because we believe
that God is active, because we believe that God is still involved
in saving the world, we look for signs of God's presence everywhere.
And when we look with faith, we find them. We see signs of
God's presence in the people we love, in the work that we
do, in the decisions that we make, in the music we listen
to. We find reasons to celebrate as we brush our teeth. Because
we believe that in Christ God is saving the world, we are
able to see signs of God's presence everywhere, as Paul would
say, "in whatever we do."
This unshakable
foundation for hope is what makes Christians different. We
are the ones who do not become discouraged or give in to despair
even in difficult times. We believe that the same God who
raised up Jesus Christ and made him Messiah and Lord, is still
active, even in our darkest hours. We believe that God is
still destroying evil, that God is still saving our world.
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