“So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.” Mark 6:5-6
Our Lord returns to His native Nazareth and desires to encounter the people and to heal them of what afflicts them. He comes to them in love and seeks a heart of faith. This is the fundamental encounter with Jesus Christ that every Christian is called to have. He comes to us and desires to unite us to His most Sacred Heart, that abode of love, so that we might live in Him. But in order to reside in His Heart, we must respond to Him in faith.
This is the lesson of today’s Gospel. Faith is not an optional statement. It is not a feeling or even merely an acceptance of a truth, though assent to the truth is an important part of it. Faith is a virtue that is infused into the faithful through Baptism, and it is enkindled by grace and perfected by charity. It is a movement of the intellect toward the First Truth, but it does not stop there. Once the First Truth is apprehended, our will is captivated by Him, and we then desire to be united to Him Whom we have not yet attained; this is called Hope. From there, we are drawn into the unfathomable depth of life, which we call Charity. It is Charity that ultimately unites us to God in His divine life.
The first step in all of this, however, is faith. Our Lord comes to us and calls us to have Faith in Him, and through that Faith, He will work wonders in us. Faith begins our journey toward union with God, but it is not the principle of unity alone. That resides in the virtue of Charity, this is why St. Paul refers to it as the greatest of the virtues.1 Without Faith, we lack an orientation toward God and thus cannot even move toward Him. Without an orientation or movement toward Him, there can be no union with Him.
This is what the people of Nazareth lacked in today’s Gospel. They lacked the necessary Faith in Christ, and thus He could not draw them into Himself. As we listen to today’s Gospel, we must reflect inwardly in our own hearts on our response of Faith. Are we oriented toward God and receptive to what He wants to do in us? We are called to reside in the pierced heart of the Lord, burning with the fire of Charity. But the perfection of Charity cannot reside in someone who does not begin in Faith. Faith and Hope are necessary while we remain wayfarers. While we labor here in this world, we must constantly ask the Lord to increase our Faith, Hope, and Charity so that we can be united to Him in eternity.
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Draw me into your pierced heart so that I may reside in the depths of your unfathomable love. Amen.
For more from Dr. McGovern, visit his Substack at A Thomist, Dedicated to the Theological tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. Exploring Thomas’ Spiritual Theology and topics in Christology and Mariology.
Cf. 1 Corinthians 13:13.
THANK YOU!!!