It is faith that give us wings to trust, rest and fly.
The Catholic Church is celebrating 2012 as the year of Faith. Rev. Fr. Tom Kunnunkal, SJ has captioned his article on this theme in the fortnightly, New Leader, october16-31 issue , 2012, as 'We are called to faith and not to religion'. It is an inspiring and instructional article.
I realised yet another dimension of faith, when I noticed a two year old child coming down the stairs, while the mother was waiting at the foot of the stirs. This child confidently held the railing and descended placing his feet alternately on the steps, while he frequently looked to establish eye contact with his mother.
Faith is following the ONE who has gone before us and waiting for us to follow Him. The religious rituals and collective practices of a pilgrim community are meant to be the roadways we travel upon in this faith journey. The roadways are external and faith journey is internal.
It is necessary to confine the external to be the facilitating the faith journey. Have many substituted the inner faith journey by the external journey!
The inner experience of faith is both a gift and personal effort. It is a gift because 'God first loved us' and brought into our lives the experience of forgiveness and healing to bring us in tune with God's ways in our lives. It is an effort because faith cannot be received as a gift unless we prepare our hearts to receive and nurture it. We need a physical place to keep gift we receive from someone. We need an inner space to receive, keep and appreciate faith which God gifts us in our encounter with Him. We nurture faith in an inner ambience of love with which God embraces us. For this to become authentic, fear needs displacement.
The child after alighting from the staircase received an hug and kiss from his mother. It was love that made him to make that journey alone. Fear of fall or hurting did not over ride his faith in his mother's presence and love.
The three parables of Luke 15 remind us that we are God's precious coin, sheep, son or daughter, upon whom God's vigilant eyes are permanently fixed. We are conceived through a physical union in the intimacy love, received lovingly at birth and cared for lavishly for our formation.
It is this consciousness of love that nurtures our faith. Faith is an experience of believing and following the ONE who is leading us into His proximity and presence.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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