Strength of faith.

You’ve probably stopped in front of an antique shop on your walks. Collecting old furniture, irons, plates, chandeliers, and other items is fa, fa, fa, fashionable. Once repaired and cleaned, one takes pride and enjoyment in one’s collection.

Therefore, do not be surprised when the Lord Jesus reproaches Peter for doubting. Who knows how it was with him? Even today, many people regard faith as the property of the ancients, a relic of the times.

We know that the Lord Jesus fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes. When they parted, Jesus went away to pray in a lonely place. The apostles got into a boat and, following Jesus’ instructions, sailed to the other shore. They did not know where Jesus had taken refuge. Then it grew dark and stormy. The stormy waves were rising, and the little boat was sinking.
The apostles were afraid. They had been bold, but now they were alone on the sea. Their Master was not there. They could not help themselves. Suddenly they saw someone approaching them, walking on the waves. They were frightened. They thought it was a mage, a phantom of the sea. They were more afraid of him than the waves, the wind, the storm, the lightning. Still, they recognized the voice of Jesus, “Take heart! It is I, do not be afraid!” (Mt 14:27). Peter wanted to be convinced: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Mt. 14:28). He went, and the waves yielded and formed a safe path. But when the wind blew harder, he became frightened. The waves rose again, and he began to drown. He lost faith and cried out desperately: “Lord, save me!” (Mt. 14:30). “Believer, why did you doubt?” (Mt. 14:31). And Peter grasped the outstretched hand of Jesus.

So it is with anyone who wants to doubt, even for a moment, whether all the wisdom Jesus proclaims is accurate and will help us. Faith has a significant impact on life. The Church seeks and builds a relationship between belief in God and the Gospel, between real, whole and abundant life.

The French bishops have declared, “The deepest cause of all deformities is the poverty of faith.”
What can be hidden behind the weakness of our poor words? How much ignorance, fear, goodwill, and unacknowledged anguish of heart is concealed in them? Faith is often spoken of as something we have whole or half of.

The notion of “having faith” is a misnomer. Faith belongs not to what we have, but to what we are. I don’t have faith, but I am either a believer or an unbeliever.

Every day we meet people who are outwardly beautiful, bold like Peter, the apostle, but at the slightest bump, they become mentally ill, lose faith, doubt, and yet finally come to the wrong conclusion: that faith is only for others. Why should I, who am full of life, limit myself, keep the commandments, and not live to the full what this life gives me?
Brothers and sisters, no woman is stronger than the Apostle Peter. The calm boat of her life is often hit by a much stronger wave, a storm. She will not give in because she knows that faith is life!

Faith is not a disease that we can “catch” somewhere.
We didn’t get faith in the cradle or at the baptismal font.
Faith is not an appointed structure, a building from which the whole thing collapses when you remove the cornerstone.
Faith is life!
Faith is what sustains you, what you belong to, and what protects you.
Faith possesses you.
We cannot put boundaries on faith. That is why we must protect it, constantly strengthen it, so that it grows; it is always alive.
Only faith frees us from the bondage that is often the lot of unbelievers.

Sisters and brothers, storms, waves, and lightning also come into our life. We are often unhappy about them. Sometimes it happens that even the slightest wave that comes to wash over us, to keep our faith pure, often this wave catches the whole person who loses faith under its onslaught.
Let us tell ourselves honestly how many have been driven away from the church by such a storm! Many have stayed at home instead of strengthening their faith by attending Mass. But we need not stop there. We need only ask ourselves: What is my faith? How can we respond to all the surges and lightning waves against our faith? Don’t we stay silent when religion, the Church, and the Holy Father are berated? Can we confess our faith wherever we are or do we conceal it?

If we do not resist all the pressures that oppose faith, our life will never be peaceful. Our lifeboat will drift on a stormy sea, and we will never be saved there. If we depart from Christ, we are lost! Our only salvation is Jesus Christ. If we can fully connect with him and call him our brother and friend, he will lend us his helping hand. But if we want to turn away from him, we are lost. Jesus will not force us into friendship. Only Jesus will save us on the stormy sea of our lives.

We cannot agree that faith is only for the old. After all, we want to live modern lives. And whatever was old – the furniture, the iron, the plates, all the antiques – is modern. Just as faith is still current and belongs irreplaceable to our everyday life