I enjoy praying the Liturgy of the Hours (LOH). It has a wonderful cleansing effect for the soul. You know how they say to be sure to get your daily regimen of fiber each day with your diet? I liken that notion spiritually with the psalms in the LOH. Praying the psalms is like getting the correct portions of daily spiritual fiber for the soul.
At the end of the Morning Prayers in the LOH there are generally five (5) intercessions. Today’s third intercession to the Lord was this:
You have given us faith to save us,
– May we live today by the faith of our baptism.
You can see how important faith is. Without faith, we cannot be saved (Lk 8:48).
With faith, we have the desire and courage to be baptized in Christ and live out our days on earth with the Christian witness of our lives to an unbelieving world.
I hope that helps explain why I created Catholic Ace. I have a Christian duty to proclaim the Gospels. After all, my chosen confirmation saint was St. Paul! The Apostle Paul certainly knew a thing or two about proclaiming Jesus to the Gentiles. St. Paul’s life, I believe, gives perfect testimony of what Christian faith is all about.
The thing about St. Paul you have to understand is that in his early life St. Paul (Saul) was the guy that persecuted Christians. He was that guy. He was the guy that was literally on a rampage dragging Christians out of their homes and handing them over to be condemned. But when he had his encounter with the risen Jesus, everything changed. Once you have an encounter with Jesus in your life, everything changes.
The first thing St. Paul did when he accepted his conversion in Christ is he physically got up and was baptized (Acts 9:10-19). St. Paul took action and moved forward with it.
And once St. Paul was baptized he lived out the rest of his earthly life by the gift of faith planted in him from his baptism.
“To Jews and Greeks alike God bestows salvation through baptism, offering baptism as a common grace for all.” – St. Proclus of Constantinople
Without faith in Jesus, discipleship doesn’t work. It would be like trying to drive a car without any gas in the tank. Without faith in Jesus, we simply cannot be saved.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; Ephesians 2:8
But with the gift of faith, just look at all of the potential good we can do for Jesus here on earth with the example of St. Paul’s life of service after his conversion.
By word of mouth, by letters, by miracles and by the example of his own life, Saint Paul bore the name of Jesus wherever he went. – St. Bernardine
The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament actually provides us a definition of what faith in Jesus is from a theological standpoint (think of heaven as an example):
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Easy verse number to remember! Remember what Jesus told the doubting apostle Thomas during Thomas’ brief wavering about Jesus’ resurrection in John’s Gospel.
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” John 20:29
Diety. Always keep that in mind with what Jesus says or does in the Gospels. Yes, Jesus was fully human, but Jesus was (and is) fully divine. I’d like to give some recognition to Dr. Brant Pitre who wrote an entire book, The Case for Jesus, to debunk all the nonsense that the unbelieving world preaches about the Gospels as being untrustworthy, etc.
Back to that chapter in Hebrews (11), it goes on to give numerous example of God’s gift of faith working in people’s lives. People like Rahab the harlot, Moses, the patriarchs Joseph, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham (the “Grand-Daddy” of them all exemplifying faith in the Bible), Noah, Enoch, even Adam and Eve’s son, Abel!
By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks. Hebrews 11:4
By faith, people from all walks of life in the Bible took action for God. Why can’t we in our own space and time here on earth? It is a question for each of us to contemplate. What can this world offer us that is better than eternal life in heaven with God?
But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9
Consider what Jesus told the chief priests and elders who refused to believe.
…Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John (the Baptist) came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him. Matthew 21:28-32
God planted the gift of faith in us. It simply will not want to remain dormant within us. It is in us, and it’s going to want to come out. It’s going to want to sprout out from within us like a little green plant budding out from a cracked slab of secular concrete.
So, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7
And that’s what I want to do here is help cultivate that resilient little seed of faith that God planted in our hearts at our baptism, both in your life and mine.
In the next post, we’ll take a look at what Jesus said about faith in the Gospels, particularly how faith saves us. There are to my knowledge seven (7) different instances where Jesus specifically says our faith “saves us” in the Gospels.
May we live today and every day by the faith of our baptism. Amen!
Baptism cleanses the soul from the pollution of worldly thoughts and inclinations: You will wash me, says the psalmist, and I shall be whiter than snow. – St. Basil the Great