CONTINUALLY GROWING IN FAITH

CONTINUALLY GROWING IN FAITH Fr Luke A Veronis   How strong is your faith? Not in theory—but in reality. Has your faith actually grown over the past 10 years? The past 5? Even the past year? Or has it stayed about the same… perhaps even drifted? Faith is not something static. It’s not like a possession we store on a shelf. Faith is alive. It’s like a tree - either it is growing, deepening its roots, bearing fruit… or it's slowly withering. And at the heart of faith is relationship—a living relationship with God. The question we must ask ourselves is simple but challenging: Is my relationship with God becoming more alive, more intimate, more real… or more distant, more routine, more lukewarm? Today, on this 4th Sunday of our Lenten journey, the Church gives us two powerful images to help us answer that question. First, we remember St. John Climacus, the great spiritual father who wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent. He describes the spiritual life as a ladder stretching from earth to heaven. Step by step, we are called to climb, growing in virtue, struggling against sin, drawing closer to God. But here is the key point: No one climbs a ladder accidentally. You don’t drift upward. You don’t casually wander to the top. Every step requires intention, effort, vigilance. St. John teaches that if we want to grow in faith, we must be attentive to how we live, not just once in a while, but every day. Every word. Every thought. Every action. We must ask: How am I feeding my life? With faith or distractions? What am I nurturing in my life? Prayer or noise? What am I strengthening in my spirit? My humility or ego? If we are not intentionally climbing, then either we are standing still or are slipping. The second image comes from today’s Gospel when a desperate father brings his suffering son to Christ. He is overwhelmed, exhausted, and unsure. And when Jesus tells him that all things are possible to the one who believes, the man cries out one of the most honest prayers in all of Scripture: “Lord, I believe—help my unbelief!” This should be the prayer of every Christian because within each of us, faith and doubt exist side by side. We believe but we also struggle. We trust but we also question. We have faith but it remains incomplete. This is not a sign of failure. It’s a sign that our faith is alive but still growing. We don't need to fear our struggle with unbelief. The greater danger is that we become comfortable with a shallow faith … a stagnant faith … a faith that we no longer try to deepen. Notice something important. The father does not hide his weakness. He brings it to Christ. He honestly cries out, “Help my unbelief.” And this is precisely where growth begins. We won't grow if we pretend we are strong. A "broken and contrite heart God will not despise. Only in honestly bringing our weakness before God will He then bless us. Remember, faith is not simply knowing about God. It is about knowing Him personally, experientially, deeply. In Scripture, to “know God” means to encounter Him in the most intimate manner. It means to be transformed by Him and to allow Him to dwell within us. And when Christ truly lives in us, He begins to shape everything in our lives - our thoughts, our words, our decisions, our priorities. At the end of today's Gospel story, the disciples ask Jesus why they could not heal the boy. And Jesus tells them, “This kind can only come out through prayer and fasting.” Yet, the disciples already prayed. They already fasted. So what is Christ telling them? He's telling them to go deeper. What was enough before is not enough now. We all must grow. We must mature. We must deepen our union with Christ. This is the message for each of us today. Too many of us spiritually live today on yesterday’s effort. We rely on habits we formed years ago, maybe prayers we learned as children, a level of commitment that has not grown as we have grown in every other area of life. Think about it. In our education, we progress. In our careers, we develop. In our relationships, we mature. But what about our faith? Are we still living with a “Sunday School” level of prayer? Are we still offering a minimal effort? Are we satisfied with a surface-level relationship with God? The saints never saw their spiritual journey as something complete. They were never satisfied. They understood that they were on a never-ending journey into the infinite and divine love of God. They saw their life as a continual ascent, a journey upward, where each step revealed something more beautiful, more profound, more transformative. They were journeying into the Kingdom of Heaven. And they kept climbing. So, there's no standing still in the spiritual life. We are either moving toward God or drifting away from Him. We're either climbing up the ladder or slipping down. The question to reflect upon is not "Do I have faith? Do I believe in God?" The real question is "Am I growing in faith? Am I deepening my relationship with God? Am I praying with more serious intention? Am I fasting with divine purpose? Am I repenting daily in a sincere manner? Am I creating space each day to encounter the Living God? Remember the words of the father in today's story and make them our own: “Lord, I believe—help my unbelief.” Let's make this our honest prayer. And then let's act on it by taking one step upward on the ladder. One concrete step this week - a deeper prayer, a more intentional fast, a moment of repentance, an act of love. Ultimately, our goal isn't simply to believe in God but to be united with Him, to be transformed by Him, and then to become by grace what He is by nature. This is a journey that will never end.