Will there be faith on earth?

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 18, 1-8)

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

In today’s gospel, Jesus asked his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Before we try to give an answer to Christ’s question, we have to ask: “What is faith?”

Faith is not a simple acceptance of a set of doctrines or formulas preached by the Church. The teaching of the Church is important; doctrine is important. Doctrine and teaching are important because they set us on the search for the truth that can shine a light on how we live, where we come from and where we are going. However, we know that there are those who know the Church’s teaching, but they do not have faith, they do not believe.

Faith is not praying at home or in church, or to go to Mass on a Sunday. Prayer and liturgy are important, and we need them as instruments that keep our faith alive. However, we see people going to Mass and saying prayers, and these do not have any influence on the way they live their daily life. Prayer and liturgy, then, are necessary and important, but they are not faith, yet!

What is faith, then?

Faith is the starting point of a great love story with a person who is alive and present!

A love story can start in many ways. We might hear somebody talking about a person whom we do not know, and what we hear about this person catches our attention and our curiosity makes us want to know more about him or her. Something stirs in our heart, and we wish to meet this person, to verify if what we hear about him or her is true. Before this meeting occurs, doubts and questions might arise in our hearts, fear also. When we meet this person of our desire, and we are positively impressed by him or her, things might start changing in our life. Things that were important take second place when related to the love that starts building up in our hearts.

The whole thing started with listening, which breeds curiosity, which breeds desire which leads to an encounter which breeds love. This seems to be the normal way love stories start. We might be searching eager to start a love story, or we might have a chance meeting with somebody who starts us on a journey in which we want to learn, which leads us to a desire to meet, which might eventually lead us to want to live with and for that person which we learn to love.

This is about the ways of human love. We may apply the same script to the love of Jesus.

Let us remember the story of Zacchaeus. He was a rich short man. He had listened to what people were saying about this man from Nazareth. Luke tells us that he “was seeking to see who Jesus was” (Lk 19,1-10). As he was short in stature “he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus”. This offered him a chance not only to see Jesus, but also to meet him in his own house. This meeting changed the way Zacchaeus saw things, and his life was changed.

If we accept this reasoning, then we can say that faith is the beginning of a great love story which is kept alive by hope. If we start on this journey to love through the desire to see who Jesus is, we will stop as soon as we lose hope of ever being able to meet him, then our love will die, too. In a way it is like what St. Paul tells the people of Corinth: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13, 13). We need faith, hope and love “now” as long as we are on our life journey. Faith and hope will fade “then” when “we will see [God] face to face” and we will be personally embraced by Him. That is why we can see and know people who do not have much theological learning, but what they learned about Jesus kept alive by hope that strengthened their incipient love lead the on through love to God’s eternal embrace.

About Christ’s question: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” We need not be pessimistic and reply with a sonorous “No”. As long as we speak lovingly about God and His Christ people we may consider sinners and bad, might have their curiosity kindled and might want to see who Christ is, and might want to meet him and a love story might start from our preaching. The Son of Man will not find faith on earth only if we stop speaking lovingly of him.

Let us remember that Christ’s question arose when he told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. So let us strengthen with constant prayer our speaking lovingly about Christ through words and deeds. Let us not count on nor depend on the results of our preaching so as not to lose heart, while we remember that we ourselves are on the journey of faith, hope and love towards God’s eternal love.