Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Charisms: 3 - The Gift of Faith

This gift inspires a person to pray with God given confidence, knowing that what is asked for will be granted. In the beginning of Acts 3, we find Peter and John going up to the temple to pray and finding a man sitting by the gates. He had been crippled from birth. When he saw Peter and John, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

What Peter had was faith, and with this faith, the crippled man was dramatically healed. Faith is a powerful gift. Jesus said, "For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20). On another occasion, he said, "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12).

The gift of faith is a supernatural gift given to a person whom the Lord wants to use to make the impossible possible. As we just saw, Peter and John went against natural laws to heal the crippled man in the name of Jesus. We must not confuse this gift of faith with the virtue of faith that every Christian is called to have. Regular faith, as the Catechism puts it, "is man’s response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life" (CCC 26).

If we lack faith, we can ask the Lord to help us, as the apostles once did. They came to Jesus one day and said to Him: "Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5). Other spiritual gifts depend on faith. For instance, Paul tells us that prophecy should be used only in proportion to our faith (cf Romans 12:6). At various times through His ministry Jesus spoke about how people are healed in proportion to their faith. "Go; let it be done for you according to your faith," he told the Centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his servant in complete faith. The servant was instantly healed (cf. Matthew 8:5-13). On another occasion he touched the eyes of two blind men who sought healing, saying, "According to your faith let it be done to you." They, too, were instantly healed (cf. Matthew 9:27-30).

Here are a few examples of what humans can do through God when faith is strong.

Elijah declared to King Ahab that there would be no rain until he said the word. His gift of faith, along with prayer, produced the desired effect (see 1 Kings 17; James 5:17-18).

Joshua used the gift of faith to command the sun to stand still and the moon to stop for about a whole day until they won the war against the Amorites (see Joshua 10:1-13).

Paul saw through the deceit of Elymas and struck him blind (see Acts 13:8-11).

Peter rebuked Ananias and Sapphira and proclaimed God’s judgment on them (see Acts 5:1-10).

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