Did you ever wish that you had more faith?
John’s Gospel tells us that at the Resurrection, the disciples “did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead” (John 20:9). At the time of Jesus’ Resurrection, the disciples had not yet understood what Jesus was all about, nor had they put all the pieces together about Him.
What was that scripture passage that had to do with the Resurrection? There are 3:
- Psalm 16:10: “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor let your devout one see the pit.” Peter’s speech to the large crowd at Pentecost made a reference to it (Acts 2:25–27); Paul’s speech in the synagogue in Antioch also made a reference to it (Acts 13:35-36). Both Peter and Paul explained that David was not speaking about himself, because he did see corruption. Rather, in that Psalm, David was speaking about Jesus who died and rose from the dead.
- Hosea 6:2: “He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence.” Hosea accused Israel of not putting their trust in the Lord and of breaking the covenant: (1) by counting on their own military strength, (2) by making treaties with foreign powers (Assyria and Egypt), and (3) by worshipping the Baals, the gods of fertility. Israel presumed that God will save them, but it was in Jesus Christ that this prophecy was fulfilled.
- Jonah 2:1,2,11: “The LORD sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to the LORD, his God, from the belly of the fish… Then the LORD commanded the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land.” When the Jews demanded Jesus for a sign, He mentioned the analogy of Jonah in the Gospels: “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. (Matthew 12:40, cf. Luke 11:29-30)” The sign of Jonah was also fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
When did the disciples begin to understand the scriptures? After the Resurrection, Jesus himself appeared many times to His disciples; e.g., He explained the scriptures to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-32).
Faith gives a believer the desire to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; this eventually leads to a deeper knowledge that will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. (CCC 158) In the words of St. Augustine: I believe in order to understand; and the more I understand, the better I believe.
When someone says, “I wish I have more faith,” perhaps he is not making use of the faith that he already has. Jesus said to His disciples, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you (Matthew 17:20).” No matter how little faith we think we have, we can do so much with it.
Therefore, the problem is not about having little faith, but on how to apply it. Do we suppress the desire to seek and know Jesus better and do we think that we don’t have time to do that? Do we allow the things that we have learned to stagnate and do we prevent ourselves from going further or deeper? Do we waste the opportunities of demonstrating our faith with acts of mercy and kindness? This Easter season, the time has come to push beyond wishing that we had more faith and to really do something about it.