HOMILY
AUTHENTIC FAITH VS. COUNTERFEIT FAITH
By Georgius Paulus, CSE
It will be disastrous to find out on Judgment day: “Jesus, I’ve done so many great things in Your Name. I’ve healed that paralyzed man, that blind woman. I even chased away evil spirits from a child.” And what does Jesus say? “I don’t know you!” If that happens, doom awaits you. Our merits to our Lord are never about our great deeds.
I’m talking about faith as a charismatic gift of the Spirit. We must discern authentic gifts from the fakes. “In our final day, we will be judged not on how great our acts were, but on how great our love was,” wrote St. John of the Cross. Whenever pride is involved, our ministry is in vain.
An authentic gift of faith consists of several characteristics.
1. The intention must be good. (Matthew 14:14; 20:34; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13) Jesus did every healing out of His compassion and loving-kindness. When the devil heals us, he always demands something in exchange to bring us nearer to hell.
2. The intermediary must be good. (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-26; Romans 15:19) Every miracle must be performed in Jesus’ Name, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. The result must be good. (Matthew 11:5) True gift of faith bears: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). If it turns out bad (no healing occurred), and brings desperation, fear, or sinful thoughts, then we can be sure that the faith is a fake one.
4. The after-result, too, must be good. What is our feeling and action after seeing such a miracle – swell with pride or become humble? Does it glorify the Lord and makes people (and you) come to GOD?
Each of the four counterfeit or fake faiths is disguised so it will not be easy to discern them.
1. Faith in own faith. Wrong interpretation of Mark 11:24 produce this. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” It is incomplete without the previous sentence: “Have faith in GOD.” A genuine faith is always at once a humble faith, a faith not in our strength, but in GOD’s power.
2. Faith in the power of own prayer. This fake faith focuses on the power of prayer. When a miracle or granted prayer occurs, it is never the prayer itself, it is only faith. Otherwise, such prayer loses its calm expectancy and trust in GOD.
3. Faith in a human as GOD’s instrument. This artificial faith focuses on human “faith-healers/miracle-workers”. GOD does give some people miraculous gifts. When we focus on the human agent, we strive hard to find mere spiritual-entertainment, not faith in GOD.
4. The barren or unfruitful faith. A barren faith like No 3. This kind of “faith” depends mostly on what they saw. They are overjoyed watching the miracle performed by people with genuine faith. But they do not have the faith that GOD is alive and doing the miracle.