Jesus once said to his disciples, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matt 8:26). The disciples had put their trust in Jesus and made their new allegiances known, and now Jesus was calling them to grow in their confidence in him. As his disciples, we, too, are invited to hear the question and respond, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). The image is one of seeds that grow.

Faith can have different meanings. We who follow Jesus Christ are called people of faith. This faith is something you either have or don’t have: you put your faith and trust in Jesus, or you don’t. Yet there is more. Faith is also a gift from God that can grow. You can have weak or little faith. You can be full of faith (Acts 6:5), stand firm in faith (1 Cor 16:13), and draw near to the Lord in full assurance of faith (Heb 10:22).

Jesus once said to his disciples, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matt 8:26). The disciples had put their trust in Jesus and made their new allegiances known, and now Jesus was calling them to grow in their confidence in him. As his disciples, we, too, are invited to hear the question and respond, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). The image is one of seeds that grow.

This growing faith can also be understood as a seeing faith. Think of faith as vision. Your vision can be weak and near-sighted or strong in a way that goes beyond the boundaries of human vision. Faith is the way you see the visible world and the invisible world. This less visible world sustains and surrounds what is more visible(Heb 11:3).

We can ask each other, How well have you been seeing? Can you see just beyond the creation to the Creator? Can you see just beyond human love to the divine love that gives it birth?

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