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Nevertheless, we take Jesus’ hand and get up quickly. We are forgiven and Jesus continues to inspire and guide us. We are not discouraged and continue to try to live as good Christians again and again and again.

      Faith is the sanctuary of peace on a wayfarer’s journey. In his book He Leadeth Me, Walter Ciszek, SJ, wrote:

Only by a lively faith can a man learn to live in peace among the tensions of this world, secure in his ability (with God’s help) to weather the crises of life, whenever they come and whatever they may be, for he knows that God is with him. In the midst of suffering or failure, or even sin, when he feels lost or overwhelmed by danger or temptation, his faith still reminds him of God. By faith he has learned to lift himself above the circumstances of this life and to keep his eyes fixed upon God, from whom he expects the grace and the help he needs, no matter how unworthy he may feel. Faith, then, is the fulcrum of our moral and spiritual balance. The problems of evil or of sin, of injustice, of sufferings, even of death, cannot upset the man of faith or shake his trust and confidence in God. His powerlessness to solve such problems will not be a cause of despair or despondency for him, no matter how strong his concern and anxiety may be for himself and for those around him. At the core of his being there exists an unshakable confidence that God will provide, in the mysterious ways of his own Divine Providence.5

      In divine faith, the one believed is God. In human faith, the ones believed are persons. It is sometimes challenging to accept the word of another in honesty and in truth. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “Someone may object that it is foolish to believe what he cannot see. . . . Yet, life in this world would be altogether impossible if we were to believe only what we can see. How can we live without believing others? How is a man to believe that his father is so and so? Hence man finds it necessary to believe others in matters that he cannot know perfectly on his own.”

      Faith and its necessary sacrifices are an essential part of love within families, between friends and in the Church. As trust and faith in God is strengthened, it increases trust and faith in others (within reason). It provides a foundation for accepting others, which includes those we do not understand (our children) or like (our neighbor, supervisor or in law).

      Holy Surprise

      A life of faith can be ignited from a small grace such as a quiet reading of the Twenty-Third Psalm, a beautiful sunset or something someone said. On rare occasions, it can be ignited by an extraordinary occurrence and lead to unimaginable places. In the beginning of his book The Waters of Siloe, Thomas Merton relates this story:

      It is late at night. Most of the Paris cafes have closed their doors and pulled down their shutters and locked them to the sidewalk. Lights are reflected brightly in the wet, empty pavement. A taxi stops to let off a passenger and moves away again, its red tail light disappearing around the corner.

      The man who has just alighted follows a bellboy through the whirling door into the lobby of one of the big Paris hotels. His suitcase is bright with labels that spell out the names of hotels that existed in the big European cities before World War II. But the man is not a tourist. You can see that he is a businessman, and an important one. This is not the kind of hotel that is patronized by mere voyageurs de commerce. He is a Frenchman, and he walks through the lobby like a man who is used to stopping at the best hotels. He pauses for a moment, fumbling for some change, and the bellboy goes ahead of him to the elevator.

      The traveler is suddenly aware that someone is looking at him. He turns around. It is a woman, and to his astonishment she is dressed in the habit of a nun. If he knew anything about the habits worn by the different religious orders, he would recognize the white cloak and brown robe as belonging to the Discalced Carmelites. But what on earth would a man in his position know about Discalced Carmelites? He is far too important and too busy to worry his head about nuns and religious orders—or about churches for that matter, although he occasionally goes to Mass as a matter of form.

      The most surprising thing of all is that the nun is smiling, and she is smiling at him. She is a young sister, with a bright, intelligent French face, full of the candor of a child, full of good sense, and her smile is a smile of frank, undisguised friendship. The traveler instinctively brings his hand to his hat, then turns away and hastens to the desk, assuring himself that he does not know any nuns. As he is signing the register he cannot help glancing back over his shoulder. The nun is gone. Putting down the pen, he asks the clerk, “Who was that nun that just passed by?” “I beg your pardon monsieur. What was that you said?” “That nun, who was she anyway? The one that just went by and smiled at me.” The clerk arches his eyebrows. “You are mistaken, monsieur. A nun, in a hotel, at this time of night? Nuns don’t go wandering around town, smiling at men!” “I know they don’t. That is why I would like you to explain the fact that one came up and smiled at me just now, here in this lobby.” The clerk shrugs: “Monsieur, you are the only person that has come in or gone out in the last half hour.”

Not long after, the traveler who saw that nun in the Paris hotel was no longer an important French industrialist, and he did know something about religious habits. In fact, he was wearing one. It was brown: a brown robe, with a brown scapular over it, and a thick leather belt buckled about the waist. His head was shaved and he had grown a beard. And he wore a grimy apron to protect his robe from axle grease. He was lying on his back underneath a partly disemboweled tractor. There was a wrench in his hand and black smudges all around his eyes where he had been wiping the sweat with the back of his greasy hands. He was a lay brother in the most strictly enclosed, the poorest, the most laborious, and one of the most austere orders in the Church. He had become a Trappist in a southern French abbey.6

      God No Matter What

      In the grand scale, life is not as serious as people think it to be. Life is holy and valuable in its ordinariness as long as folks are forthright and define themselves by faith rather than by successes and accomplishments. The things that diminish Christian identity also diminish insights, creativity and energy. The way individuals relate to God has a distinct connection with the way they respect others. The dignity they display toward others and themselves reflects the respect they have for God.

      We strive to live by faith no matter what happens in life. Faith is believing in that which is unseen, and is the foundation for a sound self-image so basic to life. It is the light that guides our days when our days are like nights and nothing makes sense. It sustains a sense of security amid all the ambiguities of life. Yet, faith can be difficult. In her book Sister Wendy on Prayer, Sister Wendy Beckett gives us this illustration to help us along: “The holiest person I know has never had the slightest interior intimation that God exists. All she gets back from her prayer is doubt and darkness. She experiences a terrible fear that her life with God is all imagination, that there is no God, that living as a nun is a mockery. With this agonizing sense of her own personal weakness and her own absolute absence of felt certainty, she chooses. She chooses to believe. She chooses to act in accordance with that belief, which means in practice a life of heroic charity. This woman—and others like her, because she is not alone in this heroism—is giving to God the real sacrifice of faith. This woman chooses to love God and to serve him and to believe in him, even if she gets noting back. It is a glory to know that she exists and that there are others like her.”

      Mary is the unsurpassed example of a faith-filled person. She shows that with God nothing is impossible. She welcomed the angel Gabriel’s message. “Be it done unto me according to your word” is a response to say each day of our lives. All through the circumstances and events of her life, Mary continued to say “yes.” Her faith never wavered. She shows all people how to know and love Jesus better. She helps everyone understand Jesus who cannot be contained or limited by human definitions. She shows people how to pray by opening their minds and hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit. In order to be students in her school of faith, it is mandatory to deeply understand the need for silence, recollection and how to live and grow in faith by being responsive to the mystery of God in ordinary life. Mary walks ahead of us as we walk through the dark confusion of our time. The light from her lantern of faith helps us see situations with trust in the Lord. She is forever reassuring that Divine Presence is always with

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