Practicing Faith

If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day and you say to them, "Good-by and good luck! Keep warm and well fed," but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that?

The example above is part of James 2:12-17, where he is illustrating what faith should look like. This is near and dear to my heart as a Franciscan because Francis encouraged people to always preach the gospel and use words if necessary. We shouldn't be the kind of Christians that only give lip service to our faith by going to church on Sunday and then feeling like there is nothing more we need to do to be saved. We will only be saved by the grace and mercy of God and we never reach a stage in this life where we do not need to do more. We should always be striving for a greater level of perfection that only comes through a greater intimacy with God.

Fortunately, there is more than one path to Heaven, in part because God has given us different gifts relative to the part of the mystical body of Christ that He wants us to play. We all have to do something with our gifts, and prayer certainly counts as doing something if you don't have the means to provide the clothes and food for a brother and sister in need - but prayer alone would not excuse you from providing for a brother and sister if you did. You don't own anything. It's all on loan from God, so we should use our talents and treasures the way Jesus would - WWJD for those of you who remember that fad from my childhood.