The Favors of Jesus
Look at all of the people in the scriptures that have been granted the favors of Jesus. Without even knowing who He was, faith without knowing what faith was. In many cases, Jesus said not to tell anyone how this happened. Faith and humility.
Our faith should be stronger than these people because we know who Jesus is, and yet we sometimes seem to forget. I have often wondered if Jesus walked down the aisle of church blessing everyone, how strong our faith would become. We would spend an hour thanking God for all that we have after mass, in that same amount of time, one hour, how many of us would fall back into our usual routine, good people, but not visible followers of Christ.
A strong faith does not demand that you knock on doors or stop people on the street to tell them that you are a Christian. Your faith should be in your heart and not on your sleeve. People should be able to see how strong your faith is by how you act and by what you do, not just by what you say. We should lead all that we meet to the kingdom of heaven by example.
Acts of kindness, our conversations with others, and how we serve the people that we meet should be for the love of God and not for what we can get out of it. Humility is a reflection of our strong faith. Our recognition will be passed out at the banquet table in heaven.
The banquet table here on earth gives us the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus. This is necessary for the nourishment we need to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Without the Eucharist, our faith would become stagnant and eventually lost. Try going without water for a few days; our spirit is the same.
Deacon Mike