6TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

You see that faith was active. 

Imagine giving a bicycle to your daughter for her birthday, but she never takes it out for a ride. She has received the gift of the bicycle, but because she has yet to ride it, she isn’t using it for its intended purpose. In a sense, she hasn’t experienced what a bicycle is. Neither has she experienced it as the gift you wanted to give her.

In some ways, faith is like this bike. It’s a gift that each of us has received from God, and it comes fully alive and fulfills its intended purpose when we put it into motion. This is what James is trying to get at in today’s first reading. He tells us that “faith without works”—some evidence that what we believe is being exercised and lived out—“is useless” (James 2:20).

As we know from experience, putting our faith into action can sometimes feel as if we are riding that bike up a steep mountain! It’s so much simpler to say we believe and leave it at that. But that can make our faith into a private affair, something only between us and God. It isn’t necessarily something that others can see making a difference in our lives or in the lives of the people we encounter each day.

So how might God be asking you to make your faith more active? James uses the example of providing food and clothing to those in need (2:15-16). That’s one way, but there are many other ways as well. You already believe that God can heal the sick, but you can put your faith into action by stepping out and offering to pray with someone for healing. You believe that God wants every human being to know him personally, but you can put that belief into practice by sharing with a struggling coworker how much you’ve experienced God’s love and mercy in your life.

God offers us chances to “ride the bike” of our faith every day and throughout our lives. As we learn to “hop on”—by taking advantage of opportunities to exercise our faith more and more—we find that it grows even stronger. Not only that, but we even learn to enjoy the ride!

“Holy Spirit, help me to ride through life with faith!”

Psalm 112:1-6
Mark 8:34–9:1
James 2:14-24, 26