TWO FACES OF FAITH

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The mass readings for this past Wednesday gave us an interesting contrast between two people of faith.

In the Gospel reading (Mt 15:21-28) a Canaanite woman (i.e. a non-Jew) presents herself to Jesus, crying, "Lord, Son of David, have pity on me. My daughter is terribly troubled by a demon." Our Lord doesn't reply at first. I suppose that's because he has said that his mission is "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and this gentile woman doesn't qualify. It's only after her insistence and persistence and her clever pointing out that even the dogs survive on the crumbs dropped from the table, that Jesus finally relents and tells her, "Woman, you have great faith! Your wish will come to pass."

Jesus tells us that she has "great faith." We could call it "praying faith," that shows itself in the intensity and insistence of her prayer. That kind of prayer is a real gift of the Spirit, and I wish I had a bigger share of it myself.

The other character appears in the first reading (Numbers 13 passim). "The Lord said to Moses, 'Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites." Moses chooses one leader from each of the twelve tribes and sends them off to spy on the land and its inhabitants. When the party returns after forty days, they report that while the land is indeed fertile, "We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us." Some described the inhabitants as giants, descendents of the Anakim. At his frightening report, the Israelites lost their nerve and "broke out with loud cries, and even in the night the people wailed."

One lone voice was lost in all this negative noise -- the voice of Caleb, one of the party that had goe into Canaan. He stood up against the naysayers, saying "We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so." His voice, was, ofcourse, drowned out by the general pandemonium that had broken out among the fearful Israelites.

Caleb seems to have little hard evidence that might persuade the Israelites that they could in fact conquer the Promised Land -- except the fact that it had been promised them! I've always admired Caleb for standing up so courageously and speaking against the prevailing opinion. Often (usually?) God's revelation runs counter to what most people judge to be the right thing. He, like the Canaanite woman, is a person of faith. His faith we might call "practical faith," the kind that, for instance, moves a person to take action (such as standing up and speaking the truth in a difficult situation). I certainly envy his courageous, practical faith.

What do these two people of faith have in common? She with her "praying faith" and he with his "practical faith?" One answer is that they both believed that God can do what God promised. The mother believed with all her heart that Jesus could heal her daughter if he wished, and so she kept insisting that he do so. Caleb believed with all his heart that the Lord would go into battle with them and would easily conquer the Canaanites -- because God had promised to do so. Caleb believed, he trusted.

These to people of faith offer us a formidable challenge to us lukewarm believers whose prayer is so often anemic and whose actions too often show a lack of trust in God's power and goodness.Let's pray for one anther that we might grow stronger in our faith - both "pryng faith" and "practical faith."