Personal and Community Faith and Miracles.

Jesus makes it very clear that miracles do not lead to faith but faith that is manifest in miracles. In most cases of healing, it is the faith of the sick person that Jesus ascertains and the miracle follows. "Your faith has made you whole", says Jesus. It is not only personal faith in Jesus that benefits individuals like the blind Barthimaeus, or the woman with the issue of blood but also a community faith that cures the ten lepers.

But personal faith in Jesus is not only for personal benefits. In the Gospel of Luke 5, 17-26 we have an example of an "altruistic faith" of some in Jesus, that works miracles to benefit others. Jesus lauds the absolute faith of the friends of the sick man who is lowered through the roof and who benefits from their faith.

Faith in Jesus, therefore, is not only for personal benefits. In fact, for us who are Priests, the quality of our faith in Jesus must be altruistic and benefit the people we minister too.  Like the faith of the friends of the paralytic, our faith in Jesus must find us proactive  in bringing the physically or morally sick people into His presence full of confidence in the Divine Physician.

The Extraordinary Holy Year must find us more attentive to the altruistic dimension of our faith for the benefit of those we serve.