By Fr. Paul Jannakos
One of the most important aspects of spiritual growth is knowing that all confidence in matters of faith must be placed in God alone. As it says in the book of Psalms, “The Lord is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation.” St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans makes it clear that salvation is through “faith in Christ,” and not “by works of the law.”
It is good for us to return to this first principle of faith for several reasons. As Americans, for example, we are taught from a very young age to be poised and self-assured. We are told that successful people are those who are hard working and committed to the task. Indeed, one of the goals of secular education is to produce youth who are self-assured and self-reliant. Teachers, coaches, and counselors thereby seem to be saying the same thing: “Believe in yourself and your dreams will come true. Believe in yourself and the sky’s the limit!”
“So what’s wrong with this?” some might say. The problem here is that it speaks nothing of God’s grace. The scriptures teach that all endeavors and undertakings, even of the most routine sort, must be committed to the grace of God. For without God’s help, we are destined to failure. St. Paul, for example, was an extremely bold man. His letters reveal a spirit that was daring and audacious. Yet his personal motto, so to speak, was, “I can do all things through Christ who dwells in me.” It is the same as the promise of Jesus, “Truly, I say to you that if you have faith the size of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move’ and it will be cast into the sea. For all things are possible to those who believe.”
In this light, we can perhaps begin to understand why we make so little progress in the deepening of faith. My guess is that it is because, over the months and years, we have become jaded in our relationship to God. A gloominess and darkness of the spirit has taken hold of us. We go to Church. We receive the sacraments. We say our prayers. We read the Bible. We live by the golden rule. The end result of this is it is all in vain because our souls have grown chilly, lackluster and worn.
How has this come to be? Could it be because we have yet to truly throw ourselves upon the mercy of God, thus allowing Him to heal us, guide us, shape us? Could it be because we have not yet “let go and let God?” Here we find ourselves at a crossroads, so to speak. We can either give up and give in to the world, to the passions, to the unbelief. Or we can learn from the failure and begin anew with the grace of God.
As we draw near, once again, to the beginning of the Christmas fast, let us return and contemplate the prayer of Pentecost, “O Heavenly King – Spirit of Truth – come and abide in us!” Let each of us entreat the Lord to send us His Holy Spirit so that we might learn how to take the first step of faith down the royal path that leads to the Kingdom of God.