Faithfulness

As Christians, faithfulness is a common word we hear. “You have to be faithful”, a phrase used by many priests, parents, grandparents, friends, etc. even our Lord Himself instructed us and said that “He who is faithful in what is least, is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10) So clearly, being faithful holds some degree of importance, if not because of your grandparents then because our Lord Himself emphasized its importance. So let's try to, together, figure out what this phrase really means, and how to tackle being faithful in college, an environment that does not quite promote faithfulness.

To understand the meaning of faithfulness, it's fitting to do a very short case study on the father of faith himself, Abraham, with a story that a lot of us may be familiar with. The story goes like this: God promises Abraham a son, Abraham waits 25 years, gets his son Isaac, God then asks him to sacrifice Isaac. Crazy plot twist. Abraham ultimately submits to God's plan and shuts off any human emotion regarding the matter as some of our fathers say about him. But why is Abraham the father of faith? A quick scan of one verse in Genesis 22 that says “And Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (Genesis 22:5) Did you catch that? “WE will come back to you,” not I, but “WE”. Abraham had faith that A) God would not let him sacrifice his only son or B) God would let him sacrifice his only son BUT would bring him back from the dead. How did Abraham get to this point? He was faithful to his God through the many trials He put him through. Trials that refined him to the point to have enough faith to sacrifice his only son, even in the midst of famines (Genesis 12) in the midst of Sarah’s doubtfulness (Genesis 18), even when God Himself was silent, when we see in the last verse in Genesis 16, how Abraham was 86 years old, we see how in the next chapter God appears to Abraham when he is 99 years old, a 13 year difference. Throughout all this, he remained faithful to his God. So here we see what faithfulness means, since really it's in the word. There is no faith without faithfulness.

We also see the fruit of faithfulness in Abraham. How not only did God not let him sacrifice his only son, but every Christian now, is considered a son of Abraham. God never forgets any of the sacrifices we make for him, as big or as little they may be.

Now the word of God is so beautiful because it is living. He gives us the commandments and shows us how to live them, where they have been applicable in the generations before us, and will continue to be applicable for generations. Now how can we be faithful in college? Will God really punish us and not have us be in Paradise for adding a bit of creamer to our coffee when we’re fasting? Or bend the rules in a syllabus to not make us feel bad about cheating? ... is that really our goal, whether we end up in Paradise or not? Or is it that we know that we are going to Paradise, and our ultimate goal is to be as close to our Beloved and beloveds as possible. If it's the latter, then we won't make exceptions to our faithfulness, not for a class nor for a cup of coffee.

It is true that not all sins are equal, but ... if you are having a conversation with a boxer, what would you say to him if he told you that he was planning on defending himself from all the uppercuts and hooks, the hard punches, but not defending himself from the jabs, the light punches? You would quickly realize that this boxer would not go very far in his race to be a champion with a mindset that is that ridiculous. This is exactly what King Solomon meant when he spoke about the little foxes ruining the vine, “Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines ...” (Song 2:15). Those sins that we dont think are that big of a deal are the little foxes that spoil the vine, preventing God from looking at our heart and saying “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.” (Psalm 132:14)

All God needs is for us to purpose a desire to be faithful in our heart. That's it. He will work with that desire and will help us bear fitting fruit from it. We have proof of this in the wisdom of Sirach where we read God speaking to us and its almost as if He is promising us on the mouth of Sirach saying “Fight to the death for the truth, And; the Lord God will fight for you. (Sirach 4:28). May God give us strength to be perseverant, vigilant and faithful so that we can hear the sweet voice of our Lord telling us “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” (Matthew 25:23)