Always Faithful - John 6:60-69

The United States Marie Corps has a famous motto, “Semper Fidelis.” This is a Latin phrase, which translated means, “Always Faithful.” That’s what Marines are taught to be: always be faithful - to their country, to the Corps, and to the mission they've been assigned.

Likewise, Christians are called to be always faithful to God. Of course the problem is that we all fall short and sometimes our faith wavers as we face our daily trials and are enticed by worldly influence.

Like the disciples in the gospel, we are called upon to choose between the faithful path or not. And we may be called upon to choose multiple times each day. Some choices are large and significant, but many are small choices that are no less significant when added together. In the gospel, the disciples were faced with a large and significant, life changing choice: faithfully follow Jesus or go back to their former way of life.

Faith is both a gift and a virtue. We can’t give ourselves this gift of faith. It’s been given to us by God himself. God desires that we all come to knowledge of him and come to salvation, but it is also a virtue which means it’s something that has to be cultivated. It has to be exercised.

When we demonstrate an absence of this virtue of faith in our lives, it’s likely that we have chosen to do one of two things: We’ve either chosen to give it away or we’ve chosen not to use it.  If the choice is made to give it away it likely doesn’t happen all at once. Typically, it’s not one definitive decision to say no (as it appears that some of the disciples did in the Gospel) where they in effect say: “No, I will not serve the Lord – I will serve something else.” More commonly, it’s when we take our heart back from the Lord and give it to something else, piece by piece.
                       
This is what happens when we idolize something. When we idolize something, we take a good thing and make it into an ultimate thing, (the word binge comes to mind) taking something that is good, something that is good in this world, whether that be a relationship or a gift or a talent or work, or a form of entertainment, and put it at the center of our lives – a place where only God should be. We typically don’t do that in one big move, we do it in small moves, incrementally. We backslide from our faith.

There is this thing called the sand ceremony that occurs in some weddings, not necessarily in Catholic weddings, but the sand ceremony is where you take a glass vase and in it, your pour three different colors of sand. One color sand represents God. The couple pours that in. And then they have two different colors of sand, one for the bride and another for the groom, and they take turns pouring in those sands. So, in this vase there is three colors of sand: the God colored sand and then the sand for each, the bride and the groom. It’s all mixed together. And the idea behind all this is that with the couple’s sands all mixed together with God as their base, it is impossible for them to be separated.

The point here is that the sand actually can be separated. It takes time, but it’s possible. And the reality is that’s how many marriages dissolve. It’s because the vase has become dismantled, and slowly each partner takes back a little bit of their colored sand. Small decision after small decision, they keep sorting the sand. And so instead of belonging to each other, more and more, they belong to themselves.
                                                                                                                 
Something similar happens to us when it comes to our overall relationship with the Lord. We say to God, “I’m going to be always faithful, but then what happens is little by little something else becomes God’s chief rival for our heart. Something else becomes God’s chief rival for our mind. Something else becomes God’s chief rival for our time. As someone once said, the human heart is an idol making factory. We can make idols of almost anything.

Does God have a chief rival in any of our lives? Chances are probably pretty good that there’s at least one, if not more, in all of our lives.

We’ve had some storms and power outages over recent weeks. A long enough power outage can make for a good time to reflect on the idols of our lives, mostly because many of those idols thrive as a result of electricity. I think of the outage a couple of Thursdays ago. Voices all over Pittsburgh could be heard to say, “What do you mean, I can’t watch the Steeler exhibition game? I wanted to see how those 3rd and 4th stringers look in a game that means absolutely nothing.”  We’ve all got our idols!
                     
One way to lose faith is to give it away, the other is to not use it. So many people lose their faith because they simply choose not to use it. From all appearances, they’ve given into the sin of indifference, where they really don’t care one way or the other – it’s not enough of a priority, so they just don’t act in faith. But choosing not to choose is still a choice, isn’t it? If we don’t live in faith, our faith is going to die. It’s the law of atrophy, right?  If we don’t use a muscle we will lose it. If we don’t use our brain we will lose our capacity to use our brain. If we don’t use our body, we will lose your capacity to use our body. And if we don’t use our faith, we will lose our capacity to use our faith, to live in faith. Max Kolbe once said, “The most deadly poison of our times is indifference.”

I was listening to a reflection from a priest who told of story of a young man in medical school. This fella had gone to a Catholic college. During his time as an undergrad, he had gone through a period of discerning his faith, asking questions. For whatever reason, the young man came away with not many meaningful answers to his questions. And this can happen! He asked a lot of questions without getting a sufficient response.
                                                   
Instead of continuing his discerning, to ask the questions, he began to think that these questions he had were really too big and complicated. And rather than being dogged in his discernment, he allowed, what might be called a spirit of cynicism and skepticism to settle upon him.
 
So when this man finally spoke to this priest years later in medical school he said, “Well, you know, I just lost my faith. I used to believe, really firmly, but now I don’t anymore. I had these questions and no one could answer them.” The priest said “Well, did you continue to ask others about it?” And he said “No, not really”. “Well”, said the priest, ”What are your questions?”  He (the young man) couldn’t remember what the questions were. All he knew was that he just doesn’t believe anymore. Whatever foundation of faith that he had was now lost. If we think about it, that’s a really bad place to be, don’t you think? Because of years of indifference, years of simply not using his faith, now he doesn’t believe, but he really doesn’t even know why.

This has me thinking:  How many of our discerning 20, 30 and 40 somethings who used to come to church before the scandals and On Mission and COVID have found themselves in a state of indifference who we can invite back to church?

Faith is both a gift and a virtue. No one can give themselves the gift of faith. It’s been given to us by God himself. God desires that we all come to knowledge of him and come to salvation, but it is also a virtue which means it’s something that has to be cultivated, exercised and shared.

What can we do in this moment? I invite all of us to lean into our faith, to realize that we are called upon to be always faithful. The road to heaven is not always an easy glide path, like a smooth bowling alley with bumpers up on each side to ensure a good result. Sometimes it’s a little rocky and filled with enticing off-ramps that appear to take us to very attractive destinations. God is calling us to renew our faith in Christ.

I think of one of the great quotes from Catholic writer Matthew Kelly, who said, “Every journey to something is a journey away from something.” As we pivot to the fall season and the chance to get into some good routines, let us discern the path that we’re on and make sure it’s directed toward our faith.

And so we pray, Lord, you call us to be always faithful. Help us to see our faith as both a gift and a virtue. It is something that we can’t create on our own, but is a virtue that we must cultivate and exercise. Help us to identify any rival of yours for our hearts, so that we can eliminate them or reposition them so they no longer take up space that belongs to you.

If we find ourselves not using our faith because we’ve been distracted, disheartened or discouraged, remind us to be more attentive to the path that we’re on through prayer so that we don’t get lost.
And if we come across someone who appears to either have developed some unhealthy idols or has simply lost their way, give us the courage to make a difference for them by what we say and do.
Lord, you are always faithful to us. We renew our commitment to live as if we are a people who have faith. We will walk as people who have faith. We will talk as people who have faith. And through it all, with changed hearts, we will be a people who are always faithful!”
Amen