Faith is Trying

 Father Pothin's Reflection for Sunday May 21, 2017

The early Christians had faith that worked wonders. These believers performed signs, prayed, shared everything, heaped generosity, worked hard every day, praised God, and won new recruits. They even got along with each other, judging from the accounts of the early chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Later chapters, however, prove that the long labor of faith was only beginning. It was not all sweetness and light, but that these Christians were “trying” days and nights to please God. Faith is trying.

The experience of faith is not the absence of pain or sorrow or loss. It is, rather, the bearing of pain or sorrow in faith. Faith does not take away the wounds; it transforms them. In faith, flaws are not obliterated; they are refined and purified.

Through your faith, God’s power will guard you. This is a cause for great joy, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold—only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire.

–Fr Pothin