Belief in Jesus

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

The word “faith” appears many times in the Scriptures and is the driving force of the Gospel of St. John. In order to believe in anything, one needs faith. In the very first chapter of his Gospel, St. John wrote: “A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” In the twentieth chapter of his Gospel, the chapter in which St. John records the resurrection of Jesus and his appearance to his disciples, he wrote: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” Consequently, it is clear that St. John’s purpose in writing is belief or faith.

For people of the Western world, belief or faith in something or someone is a mental activity. We place our faith in something or someone based upon the authority that backs it up. When we see someone in a gray coat with a stethoscope around his or her neck, we believe that he or she has the authority to tell us about our health. When we see a man or a woman dressed in blue wearing a badge with a pistol at his or her waist, we believe that he or she has the authority to enforce the law. Our faith in them is based upon our mental recognition of who or what they are and the authority that is part of their identity.

In the Middle Eastern world, the world of Jesus, the words “faith,” “belief,” “fidelity,” and “faithfulness” describe the social glue that binds people together. These are not acts of the mind so much as sentiments that spring from the heart. Believing in Jesus demands a physical rather than mental activity. Jesus is asking his disciples to be loyal to him, to commit themselves to his agenda, to remain in solidarity with him. This is the context in which Jesus proclaims that he is the Bread of Life. Loyalty, commitment, and solidarity with are all acts of faith.

Jesus tells those who have gathered around him that they should seek food that endures for eternal life. They asked him: “’What can we do to accomplish the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.’" Jesus never asks people to believe him. He always asks that they believe in him. There is a big difference. In the Western world, we will debate endlessly about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We try to wrap our minds around the notion that when I or any priest says “This is my Body,” the wafer that I am holding in my hands and those that are sitting on the altar are somehow changed ontologically into something else. Western believers try to “understand.” Philosophers and theologians have developed a vocabulary to describe what happens at our altars. However, this is not really what Jesus is asking of us. Jesus is asking us to express our faith by our actions, by accepting him as the source of eternal life. Jesus gives us his body for food and his blood for drink. Then he says “Do this in memory of me.” He did not say “Understand this in memory of me.”

St. Paul tells us what we need to do to come to believe in Jesus, in his presence in the Eucharist, in his Letter to the Ephesians. He tells us to put away our former way of life and to put on a new way of life. He tells us not to live in the futility of our minds. He recognizes that if our faith is simply a mental activity, we are simply condemning ourselves to a never-ending debate about how to understand things that are by definition a mystery that cannot be understood by our limited intellects. Faith is expressed by action, not by thought. Being a person of faith means putting on Christ by living out righteous and holy lives. Stop debating about what it means to be a believer. Instead of debating, start acting like a believer.

I daresay you would not be here today if you did not believe in Jesus. You might even say that I am preaching to the choir this morning. If we truly believe in Jesus, however, it has to be more than just simply showing up. We must take his command to love one another as he has loved us to the world. The bishops of the United States have been working for a revival of our faith in the Eucharist. This will be accomplished if we are able to show the world through our acts of love for our neighbors that we have placed our faith in Jesus.