Priest Constantin Sturzu
We can speak of two kinds of faith. The first is the theoretical, mental one, a sort of intellectual conviction. `I believe in God` `I believe there is a superior power` very often are formulas which do not produce real effects in our daily life. They eventually inspire a morality which is not hard to shake.
At the level of the heart we find the other faith which involves our entire being. There is a practical, vivid faith, one which is mirrored by our deeds.
Saint Apostle Jacob summarizes very well these two ways of believing: `Show me your faith without deeds and I`ll show you my faith from my deeds.` (Jacob 2, 18).
Theoretical faith is extremely small in terms of proportions like a mustard seed, the smallest seed on earth. (Mark 4, 31).
When the Saviour tells his disciples `if you had as much faith as a mustard seed` He doesn`t want to tell them they don`t have at all and that it were enough to have as much faith as to be able to move the mountains. The accent is not on quantity – how much – but on quality. Otherwise He would have told them: `If you had as much faith as a grain of sand.`
We have little faith in terms of quantity and that one is theoretical. But in what regards the quality, is it alive? Is it organic or inorganic, having the potential to grow? From the little we have we can obtain everything. As it is enough only a single spiritual word which if we apply in deed we can save our soul. The link between the two faiths – theoretical and practical – is trust. As much as I apply in deed what I know is good to believe, I get more trust in God. Gradually we reach the absolute faith.
Today we ask God : Strengthen our faith! But what faith do we talk about? Instead of receiving the mustard seed and planting it in the earth (use it) we have the temptation to toil to harvest more seeds (all the barbecues and steaks from the grills of our daily life need mustard)
We try to gain more at a theoretical level. We want to see over and over again signs and miracles in our life. We seek sensation, we seek to be impressed, but we don`t do almost anything with what we have already received. What other greater miracle can be than the simple fact that we exist?
This is the mustard seed given to us by our Lord Christ. What remains is to bury ourselves with Him so that we may be resurrected by `the faith in the work of God.` (Collossians 2, 12).
At this we are helped by the world we live in. To quote the verses written in 1978 by a Greek poet, Dinos Christianopoulos (pen name which means `the son of Christ`): What doesn`t do the world to bury us? But they forgot we are seeds`.
