The Immutable Law of Belief


If Thomas - a man who walked, ate, and drank with Jesus - could doubt, what chance have we?

"Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe," Thomas says (Jn 20:25).

Eight days later, with Thomas present, Jesus appears to the Apostles. What does he do? He doesn't get angry. He doesn't lecture or scold. Instead, he provided Thomas what every doubter needs: evidence. He also tells him he should "believe."

Jesus Delivers the Goods
In Mark 9:14-30, we read another story of doubt and belief.

Jesus and His followers come upon a great crowd. The scribes are there, arguing with the people. When the crowd sees Jesus, they get excited, run to Him, and exuberantly greet Him. He asks what's going on. A man in the crowd has his son with him, a boy who foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and has seizures. The man says His disciples couldn't help the boy and asks Jesus if He will look at the child.

The Jesus we encounter in this story has a short fuse. He's probably tired, hungry, and in the middle of a long day. He displays impatience and frustration. Nonetheless, He asks to see the boy. The boy sees Jesus and has another seizure.

"How long has he had this?" Jesus asks, ever the diagnostician.

"From childhood," the man answers. "But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us."

"If you can!" Jesus rejoins. You can hear the frustration, even a bit of sarcasm, in His words, His version of, "You've got to be kidding me."

"All things are possible to him who believes," Jesus says. The man answers with one of the great responses in scripture: "I believe; help my unbelief." Jesus then cures the boy.

We are like the father: We need help bolstering the faith we have.

These stories from John and Mark show that Jesus knows about our struggles with faith and belief. To Thomas he brings evidence, not rebuke. To the father, he brings action, not words. The point is, in both accounts Jesus delivers the goods. He brings to each man what's needed to nurture and grow the little faith they do possess. Jesus knows that's all they need. He sees the mustard seed of faith and its potential to become a giant tree.

The Seed of Content and Fulfillment
Our struggles with faith are not aberrations, nor are they disqualifying. Yet too often, we beat ourselves up using doubt as a club and withdraw into melancholy stillness. Based on Jesus' counsel, however, we should focus on the little faith we have rather than the doubt that invariably creeps in alongside it. It doesn't matter that the faith is small and the doubt large. All you need is faith the size of a "mustard seed."

Doubt can be as slight as a momentary and healthy questioning of belief. Faith is truth and can withstand scrutiny. Uncertainty can also produce a full-blown "dark night of the soul." A person in this awful state feels backed into a corner with no place to flee and no hope to fight. Yet in a counterintuitive way this terrifying night indicates the presence of God.

Saint Faustina provides an arresting description of this confusing state of soul:

After such sufferings the soul finds itself in a state of great purity and very close to God. But I should add that during these spiritual torments it is close to God, but it is blind. The soul's vision is plunged into darkness, and though God is nearer than ever to the soul which is suffering, the whole secret consists in the fact that it knows nothing of this. The soul in fact declares that, not only has God abandoned it, but it is the object of His hatred. How grave is the malady of the eyes of the soul which, struck by divine light, claims there is no light, whereas, it is so intense that it blinds her. Yet, despite all, I later learned that God is closer to a soul at such moments than at others, because it would not be able to endure these trials with the help of ordinary grace alone. God's omnipotence and an extraordinary grace must be active here, for otherwise the soul would succumb at the first blow (Diary, 109).



Don't Let Your Feelings Fool You
The lesson for us is not to be confused or fooled by our feelings regarding faith and belief. Faith is a noun, and belief is a verb. Faith is a thing, and belief is an action. Faith is trust in God's existence based not on objective proof (though there is that) but of spiritual apprehension (or understanding). Belief is the action by which one can apprehend faith the thing.

Thus, when Jesus encounters Thomas, he tells him to "believe." When He comes across the man with the epileptic boy, He refers to "belief" by which "all things are possible." This is not a lie or delusion. The claim that through belief all things are possible is not hyperbole or exaggeration. The statement is not figurative or metaphorical. It describes an immutable law governing the process of how conceptions and ideas come into reality and existence.

Try this thought experiment.

Wherever you are at this moment, pause. Look around at the objects that surround you. Where I am right now I see a computer, a desk, a lamp, some books, walls, a floor and ceiling, a door with sunshine streaming through the windows, a photograph of my wife, a cup with a tea bag, and a few plants.

None of these objects could possibly exist if they had not begun as a person's conception or idea and were not backed - in some way obscure or obvious, weak or strong - by a belief that the object could be brought into being. All manmade and God-made objects are the result of a conception of faith actualized by a belief in being.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place in Canada
Let me give you a specific example. I am looking at a picture of my wife. I took it by available light in a delightful café in St. George, New Brunswick, Canada. I love this picture of Paula. She has a serene, inner beauty that the natural light accents with a softness resembling the wash on a watercolor. I fall in love with her all over again when I look at this picture.

The photograph didn't spontaneously generate itself. I had to conceive of the picture and believe I could use my camera properly so as to take it. Others had to conceptualize my camera and the film within it then believe they could invent these devices to photographic likenesses, such a novelty when first invented it was thought of as high magic equivalent to making a live elephant appear and disappear on stage. Who had the idea to start a café in that building? Who had the thought and skills to construct the building? Who had the idea of nation building (if there is no "Canada," there is no picture)?

This reductive process can go on an on. The phenomenological world is evidence of the law of faith and belief using cause and effect on ideas to bring objects into being. Consequently, we can truthfully state that the entire world is spiritual! God is All in all. With St. Thomas and others who put their faith into action, we too can move beyond doubt to the Truth - that without God nothing is possible but with God all things are possible (cf. Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27 and 14:36).

The same holds true of our lives as children of God. Grace is an object and so is virtue. They can be obtained only through a conception of what they are and a belief in bringing them to reality.

The next time you find yourself in doubt, whether it be a momentary lapse or a full-blown dark night, don't rely on how you feel about the experience and at the same time don't deny the experience. Rely, don't deny. Try as neutrally as possible to look upon the experience without judging it then think of the immutable law by which all objects come to being.

If you understand that, the process of this physiological-spiritual law cannot help but work in your life. God abandons no one. God doesn't make junk. This is the essence of Divine Mercy. God understands your doubt in terms of your humanity and weaknesses. That is why He is quick through mercy to spring the law of faith and belief into action.

Pray that He may do so, conceive of what you want to happen, believe that it will, and let Him do the rest. This process has governed every human achievement for all time. Why should it work any differently for you?

Dan Valenti writes for numerous publications of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, both in print and online. He is the author of "Dan Valenti's Journal" for the website thedivinemercy.org.

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