When Faith Is Hard

“From the cloud, came a voice that said, this is my chosen son. Listen to him. After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.” Sometimes, it’s easy to believe in Jesus, like, at the moment, that transfiguration. But sometimes, it’s hard. And a lot of people are experiencing that. Many of us are experiencing that today, many even falling away from the faith. And sometimes it’s not just hard, sometimes it seems almost impossible to believe. We’re in a society where St. Paul says, “we’re the enemies of the cross of Christ,” that’s a very strong, clear phrase, the enemies of the cross of Christ, are so strong and constantly attacking that faith in Jesus. And sometimes it seems like God is absent, we don’t sense His presence. Sometimes it even seems like He doesn’t even exist. Many people have lost all faith in God. So this difficult battle that we’re facing today, where the faith in Jesus has been so attacked, and so effectively attacked, so many people are again falling away from faith. So, what can we do to grow stronger, and to be triumphant in this struggle? So, let’s look at these three stages.  When faith is easy, when it’s hard, and when it’s almost impossible, because they’re like, three stages in faith.  The first stage, when faith is easy, we see that an example of Transfiguration. The apostles are believing, because they can see, they can see Jesus, they can almost touch Him and He is radiant in His glorious power. And so, to believe something so difficult that this man is actually God becomes much easier at that moment of the Transfiguration. It was easy for the apostles that could see His divine glory. And there are moments like that, not just at the Transfiguration, but when Jesus was manifesting His power with great miracles, and healings and exorcisms. It was much easier because people could see the clear results of His power. And many came to believe, it was easy to believe. And this continues, not just at the Transfiguration, but continues in the history of the Church.  Many miracles and great apparitions that the Lord has given us and powerful signs. And even in a more common way, sometimes moments that a person experiences where they feel so much the grace of God has, that His presence is almost palpable. And we sometimes speak of spiritual highs, but moments in which God’s presence is so strong, so overwhelming, that it’s very easy to believe. And so these manifestations of God, like the transfiguration, we could call them, a theophany, theophany from the word meaning a manifestation of God. And God’s given a lot of those throughout history. And sometimes they’re big, manifest ones, like Our Lady of Guadalupe, or the miracle of the sun at Fatima. And sometimes the ones that maybe just one person has experienced, but which make a big difference in their life. And so these are not just curiosities, the Lord gives these, permits these experiences for a reason, these manifestations of God. But now, there’s also a second when sometimes faith is harder, because it’s calling us to believe without seeing, without feeling. And we see that already in this gospel, because the apostles are having this extraordinary experience. And it’s just, it’s so great. And now they see who Jesus really is. It’s so clear who He is. And let’s just assume that this should just go on forever. And they want to stay there. But then they have to go back down. And it’s not just going down the mountain. It’s kind of like being taken up a little bit into heaven almost, and then having to come back to this earth, to the struggles of this earth, to the ordinary. Now they don’t see Jesus. So that’s what now they don’t see Jesus now, transfigured in glory. They see Jesus just looking like an ordinary man, the normal situation that they would see. And now they’re going back into that long slog of their mission with Jesus, as things are getting more and more difficult.  The opposition to Jesus is growing, and they can even feel also the heavy weight of their own humanity, of their own and of the other apostles. They see that even after the initial enthusiasm of following Jesus, and now things are getting very hard. And they sense that even though they’ve heard Jesus so much, and seen Jesus so much, and seen miracles, they’re still so human, they still have their pride, they still have their selfishness, they still have their fear. And they looked around at each other, and they say it’s also with each other. And so that weight of humanity makes things more difficult. So now they’re needing to believe without seeing His glory, and it’s becoming harder. And then there’s the third situation, the third stage, believing when it’s almost impossible, believing beyond all human understanding and reason. So, the transfiguration, it’s helpful to see the what the gospels were about, why the transfiguration, why did God give the transfiguration in that it says that Moses and Elijah, were talking with Jesus, about what?  We just read in the gospel. They were talking with Jesus about His Exodus, His departure in Jerusalem. And His departure, of course, meant His passion, His death. And what happens right before the transfiguration?  Jesus speaks through His apostles, reveals to them His passion, what’s going to happen, and then He tells them, if they want to follow Him, they also need to pick up their cross and follow Him. So it’s the cross that He’s talking about. And then He gives them the transfiguration. Then right after Transfiguration, He began speaking again about His passion. He’s preparing this Transfiguration, again, it’s not just like a spiritual high that He’s giving them. It’s very important because it’s to prepare them for the terrible trial that they are going to experience. When not only do they not see God, but all the signs seem to indicate that what they believed in, was false. That God is not there, that God has abandoned Jesus, as the world and satan, are the enemies of the cross of Jesus, which is satan, above all, are attacking Jesus, and they seem to be triumphant. They have led to Him being arrested and condemned, and tortured, and now dying. And so, the presence of God seems completely absent. And all they sense is that horrible wait, of humanity, everything is just so human, so earthly, so ugly, so evil, and they feel their own weakness, that’s perhaps the hardest part where the motivation, enthusiasm, the strength, that they had felt earlier, the strength which was so intense that Peter said, “Even if everyone else abandoned you, I’ll be there.” Peter felt so strongly that he would be faithful, he was strong enough. And that evaporated, and it’s all God. So, they feel their weak, sinful humanity. Where they were the ones who were supposed to be strong and, and spiritual, and faithful. And all they were, felt just that poor, weak men. And even Jesus Himself seems physically weak. Instead of being able to destroy His enemies, there He is, struggling, falling under the weight of the cross. And so where is God? Where’s the power of God? Where’s the triumph of God, in all this terrible, ugly cruelty? And so at those moments, faith becomes almost impossible. I say almost, because there were those who were able to continue to believe, beginning with the mother of Jesus. And they had understood that this was preparing His resurrection, as He had told them. But these experiences, the faith when it becomes hard and faith, what seems almost impossible, these are experiences that we can also face in our own lives. And so how does Jesus prepare them? And how does He prepare us for these terrible trials? Because again, we often experience these times in which all that we sense is just so human, we sense our own humanity. So weak and so sinful, and we’re in a world which is so sinful. And so how is Jesus preparing them? So Jesus tells them.  One of the things He does as He tells them, what’s going to happen, and He tells us what’s going to happen? The promise, the apostles didn’t want to listen to more, they didn’t, they wouldn’t accept it. He was telling them very clearly what was going to happen. And He tells us too, very clearly, that if we’re going to follow Him, it’s going to be the cross. But telling us also that that’s temporary. These trials are terrible, but they’re temporary. And they become the path to glory. They’re not the end. They’re a passage. And He leads them through progressive trials. These terrible trials, not at the beginning. But little by little, He prepares them, one step after another, for they’re going through trials, which are to strengthen them. But also we see this in this gospel today, the transfiguration, He gives them helps to believe. And so for them, and for us, let’s look at what these helps are. Because for us too, faith in Jesus is so attacked today. That’s the main thing that’s happening today is faith in Jesus, our world is attacking and trying to destroy faith in Jesus. Maybe Jesus is a good person, maybe He has some wise teacher, but Jesus is the only son of God. Our society doesn’t want to hear that. And so, faith in Jesus, with this very Mass that we’re celebrating right now, every Sunday, how we’re called to believe something which seems so crazy, that in this poor little chapel, in that little piece of bread, that little wafer, that is going to become God Himself. I mean, how absurd could that be? It doesn’t look at anything most of the time. I mean, sometimes guide your special graces, but most of the time, it doesn’t feel anything. And so, as we gather, we can also feel our own humanity, feel very weak and sinful. And we’re not a gathering of saints, we’re a gathering of sinners.  So it can be very hard to believe. And many people have lost their faith in Jesus and lost their faith in the Eucharist. It’s very hard today. So, what can help? So, most of us haven’t had, I haven’t had an experience, like the transfiguration. But there are elements in the transfiguration that we can experience. One of the elements, as I mentioned, is this Theophany, this manifestation of God, and God continues to manifest apparitions, through miracles, through healings through other manifestations. And as I said, sometimes even just personal experiences, an experience where God seems so strong, His presence is so strong, so clear. Again, just many times we hear from people just coming out to the Mission, how much they sense God’s presence, or God’s peace, just driving here to the Mission. And so those are little, kind of like little graces of God. So that those are some of the things that He continues to give to help us. Also, the transfiguration He gave His word, the word of God. And we have also that. One of the things that’s most helpful is the word of God, the Scripture which teaches us and it gives us a light to strengthen our faith, and also other like prophetic writings, like for instance, say like them, the writings of St. Faustina and other Words of Our Lady of Guadalupe, of Our Lady of Fatima, and so forth. All of those can help strengthen us, these words from heaven. And also, another thing besides the Word of God, because at the Transfiguration remember that they heard the voice of the Father speaking from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.”  Another thing that can help us is the gospel. This gospel shows that the transfiguration happened, while they were praying.  It says, “They went up the mountain to pray. And while they were praying, this happened.” And so prayer is also one of the things that strengthens us in this battle. And sometimes prayer is hard. Sometimes we don’t feel anything we don’t, we just feel cold. And we just feel human, we don’t feel God’s presence. But that’s okay. That’s oftentimes the moment where prayers most important, because God has strengthening us in faith, not just to believe when we experience something, but the belief when we don’t feel anything. And so those times of prayer, and there’s another thing that helps at the Transfiguration. It wasn’t one person alone, it was the three apostles, with Jesus or with Moses and Elijah, that is gathering together, and community is helpful, community with the saints and angels in Heaven, a community with our brothers here on earth. And so, the Mass that we’re celebrating has a lot of these elements, we have the word of God that we’re listening to, we’re not listening. We didn’t read, you know, just somebody’s opinions, we read the very Word of God, the Gospel. And then we also have an opportunity to pray.  The Mass is a prayer to strengthen us. And it’s also a community. It’s not just something we do by ourselves, but we gather together, because it’s very hard, faith is hard. And we need the support of each other, to see that there are other people in the sense that there are other people who are with us in this battle. And we have also, hidden, the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. “From the cloud, came a voice that said, this is my chosen Son, listen to Him. And after the voice had spoken, Jesus was left alone.” And so, as we go through, as we are called to this difficult battle of today, when faith is so difficult, with our Blessed Mother, though, we can ask and reflect on during this Mass, how is God forming you? And even in those times in which you feel that your faith is weakest because you feel so human, so weak, so uninspired. That can be precisely a critical time, which God is leading you to grow stronger in faith, not just to depend on what you feel or see, or understand, but to believe beyond feeling, beyond seeing, beyond understanding.  Jesus, we trust in You.  Amen.