To Believe is to Do

Gospel: John 14: 6-14

In today's reading Jesus tells his disciples that those who believe in him will do the works that he does.  Many take this to be a reference to performing miracles like healing people and the like, but the works of Jesus are fundamentally works of mercy and love.  The miraculous deeds are all works of mercy - to heal and feed people.  But just the ordinary deeds of Jesus - having a conversation with a Samaritan woman, interceding to save the life of a woman about to be stoned - are works of love and mercy.  

This point about belief is an important one, for it expresses the idea that belief is not an abstract operation of the intellect toward some proposition, nor is it the recitation of a creedal formula or oath of fidelity.  Belief is fundamentally expressed in our deeds and the way in which we live our lives.  The assent of faith in Jesus is found in deeds of love and mercy.

These deeds are ordinary ones - feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, providing clothing to the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, providing hope to the imprisoned, welcoming the stranger and outcast.  But perhaps in a vicious world grown ever colder by merciless ideologies these deeds of love and mercy are in fact miraculous, little rays of light that keep our world from total collapse. To perform these deeds in our world today is a brave act of faith.