Friday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Scripture Readings: Gen 46:1-7, 28-30; Mt 10:16-33

Both of our readings have a promise that God will be with us. The situations encountered are either uncertain or downright dangerous, but God will be with us. In both situations a man would naturally want to rely on what he could see with his eyes or understand with his mind. Instead he gets the unseen God. How is he supposed to respond? He is supposed to assent.

The real dilemma is finding the power to assent. Power is needed because it is divine faith, not human faith that is needed.

Faith in general is a firm assent of the mind to things unseen. If the assent is not firm, if fear or doubt is involved, then it is not faith, it is opinion. Human faith, to ease reliance on the unseen, relies on human witnesses. The witness must be trustworthy. After all, something is “seen” with one’s own eyes or when the mind is able to make sense of something from someone else’s experience. It is on human faith that we believe that mom and dad are really our parents. Human faith is a major factor in those discerning religious vocations. “Goodness of faith” is important to them and their formators.

Divine faith relies on God as the witness. It relies on His word through revelation. Vocational discerners usually already have this. The ability to do this is a gift. And it would not be good to rely on something less.