Living
faith in God is one of the simplest and most basic activities possible
for a human being. Although faith is a response to “hearing the word of
God,” as the Apostle Paul wrote and as prophets before him declared, it
remains a starkly simple activity on our part. God initiates faith by
moving us to turn toward Him; but the response is ours to make, or not.
Faith does not require studying the Bible, or performing various
religious practices, or being taught what to believe and what to do. It
is a simple act, that one makes in the moment, and which a soul needs to
choose to do repeatedly. The essence of faith in God is a loving,
trusting turning of the gaze of the mind towards the living God, who is
ever beyond our grasp or knowledge. Hence, it can be called the opening
of the soul towards the unseen source of all that is. To believe in God,
to trust in God, is essentially an act of loving surrender and wonder.
It happens in the moment, now, when one says, “Yes,” to God’s gentle
pull.
Each of us has his or her own
set of obstacles or hindrances to naked faith. Some are emotional: a
fear of trusting; a fear of trusting what we do not know; a fear of
losing control; a fear of change; a fear of dying; fear generated by
stories suggesting that God is not truly good and just. Other obstacles
arise less from fear than from an excessive love of ourselves, rather
than of God: Self-centered life; love of power; love to dominate;
over-evaluating our own abilities; love of money, love of “stuff.” We
also can see the excessive love of play, of self-gratification, a
refusal to grow up and to live responsibly. All of these vices and bad
habits surely are contrary to childlike trust in God.
Among church-attending Catholics, two main substitutes for simple faith keep showing up, both of which are in effect mental or spiritual diseases: Traditionalism and secular social activism. Traditionalism substitutes a clinging to “traditions” and various forms of worship rather than to the unseen God. Traditionalists are those who “cling to the side of the pool, rather than swim,” as I like to put it. Traditionalists, like the Pharisees who resisted Jesus, love their laws, rules, religious practices and beliefs more than they love God. At the heart of traditionalism is a fear of change, and a foolish love of one’s own judgment and opinions. They nit-pick and complain, and feel moral outrage at what they do not like.
Secularists in the church predominate in some areas. My home town of Missoula was a hot-bed for these social manipulators. Rather than love God and develop a genuine spiritual life, they have their worldly substitutes: change the Church; change society; end war; provide for the needs and wants of everyone; and so on. Secularists are worldly, or “in love with the world.” Rather than face their own personal short-comings and mortality, secularists want to tamper with everything they can get their hands on. Never at rest, they seek power, control, dominance, all in the name of “doing good,” or “social justice,” or some other slogan of the day. Although secular souls may do some good, such as helping to feed the hungry, they lack an awareness of their own sin, ignorance, mortality, and need to turn around and face the living God. They want to “change the world,” not live now in God.
Among church-attending Catholics, two main substitutes for simple faith keep showing up, both of which are in effect mental or spiritual diseases: Traditionalism and secular social activism. Traditionalism substitutes a clinging to “traditions” and various forms of worship rather than to the unseen God. Traditionalists are those who “cling to the side of the pool, rather than swim,” as I like to put it. Traditionalists, like the Pharisees who resisted Jesus, love their laws, rules, religious practices and beliefs more than they love God. At the heart of traditionalism is a fear of change, and a foolish love of one’s own judgment and opinions. They nit-pick and complain, and feel moral outrage at what they do not like.
Secularists in the church predominate in some areas. My home town of Missoula was a hot-bed for these social manipulators. Rather than love God and develop a genuine spiritual life, they have their worldly substitutes: change the Church; change society; end war; provide for the needs and wants of everyone; and so on. Secularists are worldly, or “in love with the world.” Rather than face their own personal short-comings and mortality, secularists want to tamper with everything they can get their hands on. Never at rest, they seek power, control, dominance, all in the name of “doing good,” or “social justice,” or some other slogan of the day. Although secular souls may do some good, such as helping to feed the hungry, they lack an awareness of their own sin, ignorance, mortality, and need to turn around and face the living God. They want to “change the world,” not live now in God.
