Commentary on the Gospel of
At the end of this account the disciples ask Jesus “Increase our faith”, but some could ask “What actually is faith?”
Usually people define faith as an intellectual capability to accept something as truth. And it seems to be right. Truth, as St. Aquinas has taught us, is [Veritas est] adæquatio intellectus et rei – the conformity of the intellect to the things. We need to store in our(s) mind some patterns that allow us to recognize truth, even if we can’t see it. Accepting that what Jesus tells us is truth is a first stage of Christian faith. And this is the easiest part.
The next stage is much harder to achieve. There are not always “the things” we have to change to be true. Sometimes “the conformity of intellect to the things” means that patterns we keep in our minds have to change. The new patterns tell us about need of being correct to the others and of course forgiving them always.
Moreover, the way the disciples asked for faith is curious. They said “increase our faith” instead of “make our faith greater”. If we achieve a point on our spiritual path we can’t do this once for ever because faith is a process. It is given to us as a Lord’s grace at the beginning when we accept the Word as a truth. The next step is when the Word changes your life; it makes us able to be true. When we can say “It is no longer I, but Jesus lives in me” we can change the reality around us, but it is not the end of way. It is the stage of faith as a mustard seed.
