Faith big and bold

Today’s gospel (Matthew 9: 18-26) relates two miracles both of which require faith but in different ways. Summoned to raise the deceased child of one of the officials, Jesus is touched by a woman in the crowd as He passes. Your faith has cured you, Jesus tells her. In the second miracle, Jesus raises a young child to life. This too requires faith on the part of her parents – the faith that brought the official to Jesus in the first place but also the faith to endure the scorn of the assembled mourners who are too familiar with death to think Jesus can do anything about it.

This gospel suggests to us that faith can be bold in two ways. First, faith can be bold in what it asks of God. Think big, ask more, even resurrection! Discernment is needed no doubt, but while God is not a slot machine or a sugar daddy, He is ruler of the universe. All the saints dream big in their petitions. All the great works of the saints grow strong through their reliance on God, expressed in that prayer of dependence that asks for its daily bread from the hands of a Father who does not want to give us a serpent. Think big, ask more!

And then there is the faith that endures in the face of adversity. We move in a cloud of unbelief, blown upon us by the assumptions of those around us. We are social creatures but when our sociability is too material, too animal, we find our faith faltering because it is not affirmed. What we need here is the boldness of the parents of the dead child – the boldness that defies the scorn of the multitude and opens the door to a Saviour’s visit.

And in the latter case, such a bold faith opens the mind likewise to the new society of the communion of the saints. Our sociability is saved also because Jesus calls us into the life of faith through His Mystical Body. Let the mourners – who cannot turn their minds from death – mourn; let the dead bury their dead. We live on through faith with our brothers and sisters as members of the Body of Him who created and redeemed us.