19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
1 Kg 19:9,11-13; Ps 85; Rm 9:1-5; Mt 14:22-33
Apple computers is perhaps one of the largest and most well-known technology companies around. Apple products are all over the place and it’s hard to believe that it was started just over 40 years ago in small garage in California. Much has been written and commented about the founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who not only had a clear vision for their inventions, faith in their abilities and a desire to succeed. These are the ingredients for success that many self-help books mention and I feel these are also elements for healthy lives of faith.
I’d like to focus on faith and desire and their importance in our lives. The account of Peter walking out to Jesus on the water is very clear illustration of the need for both. Peter desired to be with the Lord and thus asked to go out to him on the water. Whether this desire was motivated by the need for companionship or to prove something to himself or the other disciples remains to be seen but the fact remains that his desire was expressed and the Lord called him out of the boat. His first steps on the water showed his faith in the Lord, trusting in the Lord’s power. However, as his clear vision was distracted by things happening around him, both the desire and faith faltered and he began to sink. It’s clear that we need both of these in our following of the Lord. How? Why?
We need faith to trust in the Lord and desire to draw us to him so as to build our mutual relationship. It’s important to realise that we need both faith and desire because one without the other can prove to be insufficient. Faith without desire can lead to a dry and listless faith, where the following of rules becomes more important than living the life of faith. On the other hand, desire without faith can lead to us being unruly and overly indulgent, doing what we want without the focus on the Lord. The meeting of faith and desire is much like the meeting of mercy and faithfulness in the psalm, of how we’re invited to truly live our faith in the world.
The living of faith with desire can be seen in how Elijah was able to hear God in the gentle breeze and not in the earthquake, wind or fire. He was there because he desired to serve the Lord and did so with great faith, angering Ahaz and Jezebel, necessitating his escape to Mt Horeb. It was his faith that allowed him to feel God’s presence and his desire that brought him out of the cave, wanting to hear what the small voice in the breeze would call him to do. In our lives, our faith gives us the confidence that God is there with us, giving us the strength and grace to do what we need. And our desire leads us not just to God but also to see the presence of God in the world and in others.
Faith and desire lead us to union with God, the union that St Paul so beautifully described in the 2nd Reading that allowed him the freedom to even give this up for the sake of the others around him. I feel that our faith and desire starts from us as individuals but should be aimed outwards at those around us. We should seek to help faithfulness to grow and to help point desires to the Lord, to bring people to the Lord, to show others what a life of faithful desire is. We don’t need monetary success like Apple but we want to win souls for the Lord. We pray for the grace of faith and desire, for this to grow in our hearts so that it can flower in the world.
musings of a brush 
2 replies on “Living with Faith and Desire”
Good morning Fr Stanley!
Thank you for this. I look forward to reading and reflecting on your homily and let it guide me in my own reflections for Mass.
Allow me to share a little of my thoughts.
Your central idea is focused on having both faith and desire but at first I am unsure what sort of faith and/or desire are you referring to.
Is it faith in ourselves, just like how you started with Apple’s founders having ‘faith in their abilities’ as part of the equation for thier success? Faith that ‘we are enough’ to do what we can to serve the Lord?
Or is it faith in the Lord, that ‘He will guide and lead us’ only if we “desire” for him to do so?
I contemplated posting this to ask you which ‘faith’ are you referring to? Faith in ourselves, or faith in God… and I think you might agree that it is both, in the general sense.
Which leads to the next part – desire for what? As in your opening analogy of Apple’s founders to ‘desire to succeed’ (then there is the notion of what is ‘success’ that needs unpacking…). This came to me more directly as ‘desire’, in this context is the desire to follow God.
This led me to ponder if we can have one without the other as they both seem to nesessitate the other. Looking back at Peter walking on water, he got scared and perhaps starting to doubt his own action of walking on water as it is not humanly possible, but yet he was doing it. He momentarily lost faith in both himself and God, thus Jesus teased him ‘you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ If one desires to follow God but has no faith that he is enough, I guess it will lead to inaction and fear to act, brewing self doubt and lower esteem.
From here, the next logical part is reflect of how can we increase our ‘faith’ and ‘desire’?
Embracing scriptures and prayers seems to be the solution and as we read and pray more, I guess it will help to fuel these elements. Surrounding ourselves with people who also are working towards increasing their own faith and desire for God seems very logical too!
I believe we all can serve the Lord in our own capacities, big or small according to our own surroundings or situations, but we can do so.
Once again thank you for posting your homily/reflection as it does indeed help me, and in turn my family to reflect more.
Have a blessed week ahead!
Thanks again for your comment, Edwin. Really appreciate your insightful reading and your comments.
You pointed out something that I should have touched on in greater detail but chose to let slide a little to give a broader point of view. The faith in oneself in the opening example is not the same as faith in God. It’s the latter that I was focusing on though the two are related. Having faith in oneself that comes in the context of one’s faith in God means recognising our being children of God while trusting that the same God who created us will continue to accompany us in life.
Desire does need to come with faith and the build on each other. As you pointed out, desire without faith would not move us anywhere and the same goes with faith without desire. Finally, I’d add that desire here is a desire for God and not for earthly success, because after all, what will it profit someone to gain the whole world and lose their life?
Thanks again for the comments and have a blessed week ahead!