Father Dominic Emmanuel

Many who use the phrase — “faith can move mountains” — may probably not be aware that it has its origins in the Bible. In the words of Jesus, to be more precise. Once when his disciples came and complained to Jesus and asked him as to why they could not remove a demon from a possessed person, he told them, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). It is worth noting that Jesus is not saying that one’s faith should be as large as a mountain to move a mustard seed but just the opposite.
In his lifetime, as recorded in the Gospels, Jesus frequently cured the blind, the deaf and dumb, those suffering from leprosy, removed demons from possessed persons and even raised some from death to life. What is curiously affirming in most of these incidents is that every time Jesus healed someone, he hastened to add, “It is your faith which has saved you” as we find Jesus telling the blind man in the Gospel of Mark. On a small request made to Jesus from a blind man that he may see again, Jesus tells him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well”. And immediately he received his sight… (Mark 10:52). It is tantamount to suggesting that along with his divine power what really cures a person or makes a person whole, is really an individual’s own faith, even if its quantity may be as small as a grain of sand.
Faith or lack of it is the main difference between believers and non-believers. It is not that people believing in God are any less intelligent or rational than those who deny the existence of God. The defining difference is faith which is primarily based on one’s experience of the divine.
Recently, the great British physicist, Stephen Hawking, created huge waves after he published his latest book — The Grand Design — declaring that there was no need of God for the world to have come into existence. People like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens — card holder atheists — assert that they are having great success in weaning people away from faith in, what they claim is a non-existent entity called God.
Among the many virtues that Christianity considers important, faith is rated among the three most imperative, also known as theological virtues, the other two being, hope and charity.
Faith can be in the God Almighty and creator, or any other Gods who we believe take care of us and provide for all our needs. It is to him and them we offer our prayers and worship and are often ready to do anything, including sometime, to go on a war, on the rather foolish presumption that by doing that we would defend our God. Faith at another level can be also in individuals as well as in systems.
It is not easy to define faith and even more difficult to measure and definitely not on a scientific scale. Faith is often described as taking a leap in the dark from the cliff of a high mountain knowing that some invisible hand will catch hold of you before you touch the ground.
Though faith is described and demanded of people in the Bible quite often, one of the simplest definitions one can find is given by St. Paul. He says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). However one defines faith, there is no doubt that faith in the divine has done great wonders for human beings.
Faith is not exactly whether one is able to explain the mysteries of creation and of the millions of galaxies and the “Big Bang” but it is to be able to convince oneself that every small and big inexplicable event that happens in one’s life is guided by that divine power which we cannot see. For instance, science can explain a lot of things about creation, about human body, the DNA and so on. But science cannot exactly explain why if on the one hand there is so much of selfishness resulting in crime of all kinds (origin of evil), there is on the other hand, so much of goodness and concern for and towards people we do not know from Adams. Nor can science explain about the why of ethical values.
“For those who believe”, as Jesus said, “nothing is impossible”. In the next column we shall look at two of the greatest examples of faith in the Bible.

This is the first article of a two-part series. The second article will appear on October 18.

— Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament of
Religions, is currently the director of
communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He was awarded the National Communal Harmony Award 2008 by the Government of India. He can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com