Faith Moves Mountains
But what do we mean by the word "faith?"
"Just have faith!" OK, I confess this gets on my nerves. What people don't realize is that when someone is struggling, the last thing they want to hear is some trite religious phrase that seems to reduce their very real and painful situation to some magic formula for relief! It's not the way to help, dear one. Stop doing it.
We humans have always preferred magic over the hard work of faithfulness. There is simply no other explanation for the growth of the so-called "prosperity Gospel" or the seemingly never-ending "power of positive thinking" sophistry so prevalent in American Christianity today.
The remedy for this crisis of spiritual immaturity is to deal with the very real misunderstanding we moderns have with the definition of “faith.” Too many times we mean “wishful thinking” when we use the word “faith.” And that’s not what the word means at all!
Look at our Gospel Lesson today in Mark 11:22-26:
The Lord said, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you are receiving it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses."
So what does the Lord mean by "have faith in God" here? It seems like He is calling us to some pretty amazing and flashy results of our faith. I mean casting a mountain into the sea seems to be a pretty spectacular image for having faith! And He goes on to say that whatever I ask I can have if I believe! So, perhaps those "name it and claim it" boys and girls are on to something.
No, Jesus isn't reducing the Faith, the Christian life, or the struggle of holiness to merely "name it and claim it" childishness. After all, for some of these folks, it seems they'd be happy to die and go to Mara Lago rather than heaven to listen to them reduce their Faith to nothing more than temporary comforts here and now! The problem is these dear delusional and disconnected preachers don't tie together what the Church insists must be tied together here! The Lord goes on to talk about the very internal and deeply difficult spiritual struggle of forgiveness and relationships!
The Lord ties having great faith with spiritual maturity, loving forgiveness, and the terrifying message that if I don't forgive others, God will not forgive me! Sounds a great deal more serious and more mature than merely making sure you feel good about yourself. Yes, when the Lord says "have faith in God" He means that this faith, this devotion, this focus on God is meant to transfigure yourself into someone who is "LIKE" ” God. This means it isn't impossible to forgive others. This means it isn't impossible to let go of the hurts of your past that keep having your life circle back to that place of pain over and over again! You can cast that mountain of regret into the sea of God's forgetfulness. You can grow up beyond the shallow moments that always seem to have you immaturely focusing on what you don't have rather than what you are called to be! It all begins with having faith in God, a relationship of loving God more than yourself, and insisting that your life be measured not by your possessions but by the Life of Jesus Christ! That's true riches, not the "fool's gold" of stuff that can rust, wear out, or be stolen!
It starts when you define the word “faith” as a lifestyle shaped, formed, and transformed by the disciplined and regular practice of The Faith. “Faith” isn’t the wishful thinking or “Christmas list” of prayer requests made to a view of god more like the pagan gods of old rather than the Uncreated God Who comes to us in the flesh to make us like Himself!
While today is popularly known as St. Valentine’s Day, we also remember a great hero of the Faith named St. Auxentius. This precious Christian saint lived and struggled in the Faith in the middle of the 5th Century AD. St. Auxentius was initially a volunteer in the Imperial Guard elite soldiers protecting the Emperor. By this time, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, and service in the military was filled with Christian men doing this honorable work. St. Auxentius left his military service and became an Orthodox monk on a mountain in Bithynia, which eventually was named after him because of his reputation as a serious and dedicated Christian witness to the Lord. He dedicated himself to a life of Faith, which went hand in hand with his serious and ascetic practice of The Faith and died in peace towards the end of the 5th Century AD.
Today, do you have faith in God? Let's make this New Year the year you abandon the childish language of faith as a magic formula to be comfortable and adopt the mature understanding that God wants you to be "like" Him by living a Normal Orthodox Life formed by the active practice of the disciplines of the Faith AND being transformed by that regular prioritizing my relationship with God above everything and everyone else!
P.S. You proved to be a citizen of the desert, an angel in the flesh, and a wonderworker, O Auxentius, our God-bearing Father. By fasting, vigil, and prayer, you obtain heavenly gifts, and you heal the sick and the souls of them that have recourse to you with faith. Glory to Him that has given you strength. Glory to Him that has crowned you. Glory to Him that works healings for all through you.
