Gospel of Mark 11:23

There’s a story about an old woman in Donegal (Ireland), where the land is mountainy, who prayed all night that God would remove the mountain in front of her house. She got out of bed in the morning and opened the door of the house and looked out: “I knew it would still be there,” she said, sadly.

Jesus says in today’s gospel passage that if we have enough faith we could move mountains. What does He mean by this? What kind of mountains does He mean? Is He not telling us that with faith in Him, we can overcome anything? Could it be, that the reason we are not seeing miracles in our lives, is because we are focusing too much on ourselves, instead of God? We keep thinking that we have to do this and do that in order to have enough faith to receive the miracle we want. What we do not realize, is that God never asks us to muster up any faith by ourselves. You see, faith is a gift from God; it is not something we create ourselves; it rewards us when we trust in the giver of this gift.

So then, how do we have the faith that moves problems as big as mountains?
We exercise this kind of faith when we allow Jesus to minister to us. Instead of focusing on our own faith we need to trust in the Lord. When people settle for their own faith, more often than not, nothing happens. But when they trust in the Lord, wonders happen, sometimes without them even knowing it.

When Peter walked on water, he did so not through his own faith, but by trusting in the Lord. When he was focused on Jesus, he walked on the turbulent waters despite the huge waves. However, the moment he stopped trusting in the Lord and focused on the ‘terrifying’ waves instead, he immediately sank. Were the waves any larger or more dangerous than those during the brief moment when he walked on water? Of course not! The only difference is that when he stopped trusting in the Lord, He allowed his surroundings to overwhelm him and engulf him.

Always remember, God is the giver of faith. He always has the first and last word in every situation. By trusting in Him, we allow Him to work in our lives.

By trusting in Him, we are in effect asking Him to work on our behalf to bring about the highest good in our lives. Instead of constantly worrying and fretting about what we can do to solve our problems, we can leave it to the Lord. We need to stop running away from Him, and run towards Him and allow Him to help us with our problems.

So then, whenever you are in trouble, simply look away from your circumstances, and trust in the Lord. There is absolutely no way you can trust in Him without your situation improving.

This is the faith that moves mountains.

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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