The Power of Faith.

On the wall of one of the concentration camps, they found a beautiful confession of faith left by an unknown prisoner. It read like this: “I believe in the rays of the sun, even when I can’t feel them. I believe in God even when God is silent”. Christ tells us about how important faith is in our lives in today’s Gospel when he praises the attitude of the Roman centurion. So let’s think for a moment and look at this fascinating character.

The centurion was Roman and could despise the Jews as almost all Romans did. But this centurion not only respected the Jews but also treated his servants and slaves very humanely. He proved it by how much he cared about his servant’s recovery. To better see the whole picture, it should be remembered at this point that slaves and servants had almost no rights at that time. The owner could treat them however he wanted. He could even kill his slave without breaking the law. The centurion was above all a deeply religious man. Christ praises his attitude when he says: “I tell you, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel”. This praise makes the Roman centurion a model for us Christians living in our century.

The attitude of the centurion is worth following, especially today when people are leaving God and the Church for petty reasons. Why is that so? We simply lack humility. And because we lack humility, we lose faith. Unfortunately, we are many times wiser than God… We know better what the world should be in order. Many times we dictate to God what to do. And we can say that we are almost always dissatisfied. We criticize others, but we have done nothing good. For many of us, the Holy Liturgy, confession, sacraments, and devotions are just an experience and a boring reality. When we behave in this way, we deprive ourselves of the connection with the most important source of graces for us, which is the Eucharist and the holy sacraments.

We must remember that faith is a great grace from God for each of us and that it is given to us not only as a gift but also as a task. So we must not only thank God for our faith but also do everything to persistently deepen and cultivate it. And that requires effort and persistence. God never leaves us, never fails us. We leave Him… when we start with the excuse that we don’t have time for personal prayer, for the Sunday Holy Liturgy, or confession at least once a year… And then, when something in our life starts to go wrong, and we don’t succeed, we blame God and complain that He has left us.

“With faith, we stumble over every blade of straw, with faith we move mountains” – wrote Sören Kierkegaard and Karol Lehmann noted that the one “who believes in Jesus Christ does not have to die alone”. So let us value our faith and deepen it with good prayer, participation in the Eucharist, frequent confession, and living according to the voice of our conscience. We understand our faith as the greatest and most valuable treasure.

FROM will end this reflection with the thoughts of a soldier who died in one battle. In the pocket of his military coat, they found the words of this prayer: “I prayed for health, that I might accomplish great things; fragile health was given to me so that I could do good things. I asked for wealth so that I could be happy, I received poverty so that I could become wiser. I asked for many things so that I could enjoy life; I was given life to enjoy many things. I didn’t get anything I asked for, but I got everything I needed. Against my pleas, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am the most blessed among men”.