Obstacles To Faith

When Maria Grazia’s mother died, she felt lost. She had been the one to care for her mother throughout her illness and now that she was gone she did not know what to do with herself. Then she read in her parish bulletin that the soup kitchen on Lampedusa, the small Mediterranean island she lives on, needed a volunteer cook. At first, she didn’t think she was qualified to take on the job. However, she thought about how much she loved to cook and how many times she would serve as many as fifty of her family members who would show up to Sunday dinner at her mother’s house. So, she decided to show up and volunteer.

At first, the soup kitchen would provide about thirty meals every day to the needy people of Lampedusa. In 1998, the situation changed when the island became the center for North African migrants fleeing violence and oppression in their home countries. Several hundred people began to show up at the soup kitchen every day. The workers talked about limiting the meals to only thirty persons but Maria Grazia refused to turn anyone away. Relying on the food that was donated by parishioners at a local church and her own ingenuity, they have managed to not turn away a single hungry person.

Talking to the BBC about her volunteer work, she explained how she had to overcome several obstacles in order to serve the poor. First, she thought that she had nothing to offer others. She was just one, small person who knew how to cook. Then she had to come to trust that God would always provide for them no matter how many people showed up at the soup kitchen each day. So far, God has not let her down.

In today’s gospel, Jesus shows up at His hometown of Nazareth. At the time that He lived there with Mary and Joseph, Nazareth was a small town of barely one hundred people. Everyone knew each other. Nothing happened there without the whole town finding out about it. Everyone there knew Jesus and His family very well from the time He was a baby on up through adulthood. Or, at least, they thought they knew Him. They just could not believe that God would choose an ordinary man from Nazareth to be the Messiah. In fact, the gospel tells us that they were offended by Him. We can just imagine the people saying to themselves, “Who does He think He is? He is no better than we are!”

Jesus knew them very well too. As the Son of God, He knew them better than they knew themselves. Yet, Saint Mark tells us that He was amazed at their lack of faith. He went back to Nazareth because He expected them to embrace Him and believe. He expected to bring hope and healing to them as He had to so many other people in the area. However, they could not get past the idea that God does not use small people from small places. They could not get past their preconceived notions of who Jesus was. And so, because of their lack of faith, Jesus could not perform any miracles there.

In our day, we suffer from a very different type of lack of faith. We believe in Jesus. We proclaim Him as the Son of God and Messiah. However, like the people of Nazareth and like Maria Grazia we have obstacles that keep Jesus from doing great things in and through us.

First of all, we believe that we are too small and insignificant to be used by God. We think that we do not have enough to offer and cannot make a difference. So we choose to keep our faith to ourselves, to not risk helping others when we have the opportunity. We mind our own business rather than allowing God to work through us. In our minds, we think we are being humble but what we are really doing is telling God that He is not powerful enough to use us. Because we do not act, because we do not speak out, Jesus is not able to perform any mighty deeds through us.

However, God put each of us here for a reason. There are people that only we can help. We have insights and ideas that can make a difference in the lives of those around us. Simple words of encouragement can give others confidence and hope. Simple acts of kindness can convince the strangers who cross our path that they are not alone. For God to do great things in us, we do not need unique talents or limitless resources. We simply have to let go of our fears and allow God to inspire us with kind words and thoughtful gestures. If we allow God to use us everyday in small ways, we will have the confidence and courage to do His will when we are called upon to do great things

Secondly, we fear that God will not provide for us. We fear that if we take on a responsibility, He will not give us what we need to see it through. This was one of Maria Grazia’s fears when she started working in the soup kitchen. However, not a day has gone by when she has not had enough food for the hundreds of hungry people who turn to her. We can believe as well that, if God has given us a mission, He will also provide us with everything we need to do it. We might not get what we need until the very last minute, but it will arrive right on time.

God wants to do great things in and through us. No matter how small and insignificant we may seem, God wants to use us to bring hope and healing to others. No matter how limited our resources may seem, God wants us to trust Him to give us what we need to make a difference. When we take the risk to reach out to someone who needs our help, to speak out when we see an injustice or to simply hold the hand of someone who is hurting, we will begin to see miracles take place. If we are not willing to take a risk, then we do not really have faith and God cannot use us. However, if we can trust God enough to risk our comfort, our reputation and maybe even our safety to help another person, we will see great things which we can then tell others about so that they too can allow God to use them.