Believing and acting on the Word of God

Believing and acting on the Word of God

Fr Pat Collin CM, a lecturer in spirituality at All Hallows in Dublin, reflects on how God first granted him the gift of expectant faith when many years ago he prayed for one of his pupils to be healed.

When I was baptised in the Spirit, 31 years ago, I received a new love and understanding of Scripture. As a result I would try and read the scriptures every day and ponder them and what they meant. One passage that always intrigued me was the story in the gospel of Mark when Jesus cursed the fig tree. When the apostles go past it some time later they see that it has withered to its roots and are amazed, to which Jesus responds, "Have faith in God. Amen I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours." (Mark 11:22-24).

This is an incredible promise. Jesus says it - so it must be true, but did I really believe it? When I reflected on it, although I assented to its truth in theory, part of me doubted because I had never actually seen a miracle myself. In academic circles people tend to cope with this dilemma by spiritualising the interpretation so it no longer means what the text says literally. In fact, whenever I brought this point up I would be accused of being a fundamentalist or having an over excited imagination. I felt in my heart, however, there was more to it than that and I wrestled in prayer with this passage for six months.

The thing with the Word of God is there are two aspects to it. There is an objective truth about the Word, which is true whether you believe it or not, but for the Word to bear fruit in your life, you have to hear it as a revelatory word, and that is always a gift from God which you have no control over. I seemed to be getting no light on it at all, but I kept knocking and the answer came in a way I least expected.

"I spoke with more faith about these things than I actually had"

At the time I was teaching A level religion in a boys' school. We had a very good football team and had reached the semi-finals of the cup. Then tragedy struck. Our star player injured his back. He could hardly stand straight and was totally out of action. The whole school was devastated. A deputation of boys came to see me and asked me to pray with him so he would get well, reminding me of how often I had talked about the miraculous working of God's power. I felt cornered. The truth was I spoke with more faith about these things, than I actually had. And the boys themselves would often chant "Jackanory", at me as they didn't believe it. But in this moment of difficulty they were prepared to try anything.

" Found it hard to believe"

I didn't feel confident enough to pray, so I avoided the issue, by telling them it was up to the boy himself to come and ask me. I used the same excuse when a short time later the headmaster approached me with the same request. But then Hugh, the boy himself turned up and spoke to me directly. "I can't sleep", he told me. "I am in pain all the time. I can't study. Would you pray for me? You are always talking about the power of prayer!"

There was nothing for it. The two of us went into one of the classrooms on our own and I brought my New Testament with me. I asked him if he had faith that Jesus could heal him. He said, "I believe with my mind, but it is hard to believe it is true for me today." I confessed that I was in the same boat and that I found it hard to believe as well, but that we needed to step out in faith.

"Pray with the measure of faith you have"

I asked him where the pain was. I knew very little about praying for people at the time, but I knew I should say something to his back. I also knew that you should only pray with the measure of faith you have and be honest. I felt sure that God would shine the light of the Holy Spirit on his back if I asked, so I prayed "May the light of your Holy Spirit shine on the vertebrae, disks and tendons that are injured." So far so good. "And may the light of your Holy Spirit command them to yield to your purposes and your will." All this was still within the measure of my faith.

"The Word dropped from my head to my heart"

Then somewhere in the middle of that prayer, the Word dropped from my head to my heart and suddenly I receive the gift of faith and experienced a strong conviction that that he would be healed, and prayed accordingly. "Be healed right now," I said. Then I felt led to thank God in anticipation of what I knew He was going to do. I was convinced that something had happened, but when I asked Hugh how he felt, he told me that as I had begun to pray the pain had got more intense. "Look at Jesus," I told him, "not the pain", reassuring him that healing was often not instantaneous but a process.

When I went back to my room, I went down on my knees in desperate intercession, reminding the Lord that it was his honour at stake, all the boys would be watching, and the sports master who had stopped going to Mass had promised to reconsider his position if Hugh was healed. I had never felt so vulnerable and not in control, and I begged the Lord to act.

By the next morning my faith had faltered a great deal and with a heavy heart I went to class. Hugh always sat in the front of the room and I was afraid to ask him any question the other boys could hear. I could see him sitting there, so there was nothing for it and I went up to him and asked him in a whisper how he was. "I'm perfect today," he said. All the boys in class gasped, and for the first time in my life I had the experience of the Word of God going out and not returning to me empty but achieving what it set out to do.

"Distinction between ordinary faith and expectant faith"

In fact this was not the only healing to come out of it all. The boy's girlfriend told one of the teachers at her school what happened, and advised her to come and see me. When I reluctantly prayed for her, she was healed too. These incidents massively increased my faith, but it clarified for me the distinction between ordinary faith in God and the expectant faith that is necessary for healing and miracles. When we read God's promises in the Scriptures, the mind can give mental assent to God's promises but faith is in the heart and needs a revelatory word, which needs a lot of prayer, and is ultimately a gift from God.

I'm sure it is something the Lord is calling us to do more of. We really must be prepared to wrestle in prayer with all the magnificent promises God makes in scripture and ask for faith to believe. If we do believe it will bear fruit even to the point of miracles, which is what the Church needs today.

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