One of the CD’s currently in my car is one by Michael Card, many of whose songs I enjoy. The one that I keep coming back to is titled, That’s What Faith Must Be. The lyrics of the chorus are:
To hear with my heart,
To see with my soul,
To be guided by a hand I cannot hold,
To trust in a way that I cannot see,
That’s what faith must be.
The words came back to me again as I read today’s first Mass reading. In today’s passage from the book of Genesis, God instructs Noah to build an ark and to take on the ark all his household and a pair of every clean animal so that they would be saved from the flood. And “Noah did just as the Lord had commanded him.”
I have to wonder, what would I have thought and done if I had been Noah. Sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, no sign of rain and here’s God telling me to build this enormous ark. Would I have had the faith to do follow those instructions? If I started, would my faith have wavered when my friends and acquaintances started making fun of me for engaging in this apparent folly? As the sun shone down on my shoulders, mocking my preparation for the rain, would my faith have sustained me?
I know how I want to answer those questions: Of course I would have had the faith and that faith would not have wavered. Instead, I pray: Grow my faith Lord…help my unbelief. Let me hear with my heart, see with my soul and be guided always by your hand. Let me trust even when I can not see. That’s what I want my faith to be, Lord.
Creo en Dios! 