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Why is St. Paul not in contradiction with St. James? How is it that we are told we have God’s grace and that faith without actions, is dead? St. Paul condemned the sins of pride, hypocrisy, favoritism and slander. While St. James taught us about purity, controlling bodies in holiness and honor, how do we practice life with faith, knowing these teachings? Can we live a life without faith?
These questions were part of Sunday’s post-lunch discussion at a relative’s house, initiated by a 28yo nurse humbly sharing his assignment with his cousin, a 22yo technology assistant, soliciting views about faith.
I was taken aback by their discussion and the depths of questioning spiritual teachings. As if those questions were not enough, another introduces complexity into the discussion, “can you live a life without Faith?”
We probe some more until it became about good deeds, showing compassion. About who to serve, how to serve and that doing good to others is about living one’s faith. I wish I could have stayed longer, and witnessed a consensus, but would they have arrived at one?
I once was blind, now I can see
Two years ago, two relatives had life threatening health conditions.
One had stage 4, bone cancer. Instead of expecting death, the family turned towards her and prayed for her reversal of cancer, a bold ask. Simbang Gabi masses were offered for her healing, and nuns included her in their group prayers.
I saw her transformation into a healthier version of herself: positive, laughing, sharing her wisdom, testifying to her faith and God’s grace, and a teacher of healing and spirituality.
While doing her chemotherapy and radiation, she went to daily Mass and took Holy Communion, twice a day. Her tumors have disappeared from her liver and her bones, with a slight one in one of her lungs. Her hair has grown back. She credits the Eucharistic Therapy in keeping her alive, as well as modern science. We continue to pray for her miracle, a remission of her cancer.
Another relative had a stroke and although, without physical paralysis or facial contortions, her cognitive abilities to hold down a full-time job and remembering have been impaired. She prays and aspires to organize healing masses, which she did a lot, pre-stroke.
She has since changed her lifestyle, which includes green smoothies, walks, enhancing her spirituality with her latest discovery, Dr. Wayne Dyer. We too pray for her total healing, a reversal of her stroke condition.
Without faith in both situations, their health conditions would have been unbearable. Instead, they chose God to be with them in their sufferings, embracing their challenges, and sought solutions to address them, including changing hospitals, finding healing physicians who promote life, and not a practice, anchored on deaths of cancerous patients.
Can you imagine having this professional practice of death, and not life? How much of our words and praxis enhance life? Or do our practices decimate lives and businesses?
Promoting life with our faith
The question of can you live without faith lingered in my mind.
I asked Fr. Rodel Balagtas, Director of Pastoral Formation and Field Education at St. John’s Seminary, “We are endowed with God’s grace, yet we are also told faith without actions, is dead. How can that be?”
“Yes, we are saved by God’s grace. But because our relationship with God is covenantal, our actions should reflect our relationship with him. Our identity as God’s children should be manifested through our deeds. Every action, every good deed should flow out of our generosity to God who has first loved us. Our moral lives are not based merely on a code of conduct. They are based on a covenantal relationship, which is more dynamic, personal, free, meaningful and life giving,” he wisely answered.
No wonder he is that generous amongst friends and parishioners, sharing his spiritual wisdom, accessible to parishioners who needed his guidance, and caring deeply about our emotional lives to be healthy, as families worshipping together.
I witnessed how Fr. Rodel grew Immaculate Heart of Mary Church and the Church’s vibrant soul to be so positive and overflowing in joy, that musicians did not simply sing, they recruited other musicians to sing in this Church, that folks travelled 30 miles one way, just to be part of this joyful, sacred, vibrant synergy of Sunday Mass.
Even the children were so happy that they did not just sing in church, they competed in World Choir Games and joined festivals. The teenagers went on retreat and when they came back, they had new dances to express their faith and worship to God. The masses got alive on Sundays that most came back for more. Attendance soared and pews were filled in each of the masses. Clergy from poor missions were welcomed and spontaneously, concerts would be held in Church to benefit them and the parishioners came to support, all for their love of God and their undying faith.
How did this process of questioning, of studying the teachings of St. Paul with St. James, now lead into an invitation to listen “The Third Jesus” audiobook by Deepak Chopra, from Charito, a visiting jazz singer from Tokyo, Japan? How is it that the Higher Universe is layering all these questions?
I cannot stop the unraveling of questions for a week, that I wondered aloud, is it possible that the Holy Spirit is preparing us in America, for Pope Francis’ visit in September?
Just as I surmised, at lunch on Thursday, gathered were a Catholic, a Lutheran and an ecumenical believer of God. We got into a discussion of Pope Francis, with an ecumenical believer saying, “Hey, I love your Pope Francis, he is Jesus-aligned, he is Biblically-aligned, he is morally aligned.” Both Lutheran and ecumenical believer enumerate for this writer what Pope Francis’ edict to the parishes, take in one Syrian family of refugees, what he did for the homeless in Rome, and what he is doing for climate change, Laudato Si.
The questions kept coming, that I found another book, “The Case for Grace” by Lee Strobel, its subtitle, “A Journalist Explores the Evidence of Transformed Lives.” I started reading it and the chapter I turn to, The Case for Grace. Can this be coincidence or serendipity?
Seeking another answer, I posed the question to Fr. Camilo Pacanza, a wise homilist and St. Lucy’s associate pastor. He said, “To Believe (Faith) is to Be (A)live in, With, For God. God’s Grace is active not static. We are Graced so we can live our Faith in love. (Torah) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus). Good Works/Loving acts to the neighbor is Graced Faith in action! Living Faith! Graced Faith. God bless you in your concern.”
I am still in search of answers. I realized faith is a personal journey, with each of us undertaking a unique way of inquiry, of partaking the Divine in our lives. It maybe giving a sick friend a ride to get chemotherapy, it may even be writing about faith, it may take the form of expressing our love of God, through songs; enabling others to worship deeply, and it may even take a blunt word to another to move on and change, for after all, when we are stuck, it is not for lack of past love, but for lack of giving ourselves and others present love or to take a stand for truth and justice, even if against institutions which have gone mission-directed towards mighty dollars, away from pursuit of justice.
I also came to the conclusion, as Deepak Chopra, “our faith becomes how comfortable we are with the contradictions.” May we all evolve to be God’s grace to one another, to be more humane, enlightened citizens of the United States of America, while continuing our quest for answers to our faith questions!