Preserving faith

I have not been physically tip-top lately, and I put it down to ageing, and again, the need to engage in self-care shrieks in my ears to remind me I have been negligent. I have again been trying to do too much, charging around, putting the needs of others before my own sidestepped ones. And yet, isn’t that what we are called to do? What happens when I can no longer help or be of any use to someone, much less society at large? It is a sobering thought. What if I can no longer be that good and faithful servant, parlaying my five talents into ten?

I could feel the unspoken frustrations of my SD whom I visited yesterday, who was clearly feeling the weight of his years and poignantly wondered if he would see 92 in July? What is it like to live in a decaying body that betrays you with its limitations, pain and suffering? And yet, here he was, valiantly cheerful, endeavouring to minister to my spiritual life. God bless him for still trying so hard at his age to give in his physically straitened circumstances.

He is, for me, the image of the indomitable, good and faithful servant, undefeated by the ravages of time. The lesson for me was this, to never stop moving forward. Don’t give up, keep on going, walk every step in faith. Only by faith will we be carried by divine grace to remain smiling graciously even when we are wrecked with pain; to be able to inspire others when we feel so uninspired, and truth be told, down in the dumps, ourselves. It is the discipline of faith, the way we assiduously nurture the gift of faith given to us by God, that will enable us to sail the waters of chaos, loss and challenge in our lives.

We need to work long and hard at keeping the faith alive - like Simeon and Anna, who were both present at the Presentation of Jesus, and could rejoice with His parents when they saw the Messiah Himself. We must be faithful, ready to live every single day in the temple of the Lord, consecrating ourselves, living a particular lifestyle of prayer and praise indefatigably, being of singular heart and mind, never doubting, despite the numerous naysayers that surround us, and the tragedies that grip our lives.

Only when we invoke and manifest this gift of faith will we actually be able to see the face of our Lord in our lives. Not only that, in those interminable years of waiting, we will, like Simeon and Anna, be able to incarnate Christ to all we meet.  

I would like to think that both Father A and myself saw Baby Jesus in each other and that we both came away from our meeting with hearts a little lighter, more hopeful, even healed, and filled with some of the joy that surely both Simeon and Anna felt that fateful day in the temple.