‘JESUS! MAKE ME BRAVE!’

Check out this post on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C6zfk6frJUS/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again .

I love this mum.

So in this post, her 2-year-old son, Banner, is standing at the edge of a public pool togged out in water wings, swim goggles, and blue-striped swimsuit. His swimming teacher’s in the water, waiting with outstretched arms. Banner prepares to make the jump: little hands fisted by his side, he looks ahead, shouts out, “Jesus! Make me brave!” and jumps straight into the water.  His mum cheers him on and goes, “Love it!” when Banner’s safe in his teacher’s arms.

Pause for a moment: the teacher’s apparently so convinced Banner can do it he doesn’t even look when his little student lands in the water and for a moment is fully submerged. He just casually reaches out to pull Banner to him when the boy pops back up.

I wanted to shout hysterically at him to pay attention. The boy could have drowned.

Here’s a summary of what the mum says in her post: it seems Banner’s facing several fears, like the dark, being submerged under water etc. So she and her husband have been teaching all 4 of their kids to do this when they’re afraid:

‘1) Ask Jesus to make them brave.

And then,

2) Do the thing even before you feel brave enough to do it.’

That hit me. Ask Jesus. Then act immediately.

No waiting to feel courage flowing through your frozen veins. No waiting to feel God’s grace. No waiting to see proof that He’ll give you what you asked for, like some celestial magician.

To go ahead and struggle with whatever’s in front of you, even before you feel brave enough to do it.

To be like Nike and just do it.

Faith That Does What is Needed

Imagine Habakkuk in this week’s 1st reading complaining – likely berating, reproaching God – as Judah struggles with internal and external threats and faces desperate conditions of violence and suffering. It’s one thing to keep praying for divine justice, another to wait patiently for God to act in His time while in their time, nothing seems to change.

Imagine poor Timothy in the 2nd reading: his mentor’s in prison and Timothy’s struggling against the values of a very different culture, likely in Ephesus. It’s not easy to be brave in a situation like that, where you’re one of the few non-conformists to widespread social mores that fight against your apostolic ministry. At the start of his 2nd letter to his disciple, upon whom he’d laid his hands to pass on the work of the ministry, Paul reminds Timothy of the latter’s ‘sincere faith’ that first lived in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and which Paul is confident lives also in Timothy (2 Tim 1:5).

Timothy is to take that faith and ‘fan (it) into a flame’ because it’s a ‘gift’ that God’s given him. Easier said than done. But Paul reminds him – and us – that God’s gifted us ‘the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control’, and we’re ‘never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord’.

Which means calling on God the Father, the Son in whose name the disciples are preaching, and the Holy Spirit ‘who lives in us’. Then jumping immediately into the mission of evangelising and trusting God with the outcome. Like God tells Habakkuk to tell the people. Not focusing on the still-present dangers and trials which can intimidate us into non-action or – worse – conforming to the values of the majority.

Jesus tells the apostles something similar in today’s Gospel.  They already have faith – in fact, they are the lucky ones because they have Him. It’s astonishing, if we think about it, how hard it is then for them to not have total faith in Him. They’re living with His miracles. They hear Him preach. Yet they still doubt.

Sometimes I think, can He blame us, then, 2000 years down the road without His physically visible presence to assure us?

We’re losing a lot of Catholics around the world these days and it seems many don’t believe in the real presence of our Lord in the Eucharist or the relevance of the Sacraments. Like the apostles, we’re called to address that loss of belief. We’re servants of God, not in a master-slave relationship of course, but in that from the depths of our love and belief in Him, we want to plough His field and mind His sheep. By the way we live, in the small tasks we undertake, we can serve with simple obedience and show the world that God is alive and still saving us. It’s the ‘something precious’ that Paul has passed into Timothy’s hands, and it’s been passed to us. To serve well, we have to root ourselves in faith.

It’s really about faith.

Faith that Waits with Hope

The size of a mustard seed, Jesus says. More than enough to uproot a tree and transplant it to the ocean – a seemingly impossible task, because the extraordinary strength of the roots of the mulberry tree was thought to cause the tree to stay rooted for 600 years. But there it is: not a magician’s trick but the depth and intensity of even a little faith.

Faith grows when we trust God and serve Him with simple obedience – something that St Thérèse of Lisieux understood well. This year is her 100th year as a saint, and her feast day’s just passed: 1 October. Her philosophy of simple obedience and small ways to do God’s will led her to become a Doctor of the Church – the youngest ever. St Thérèse had to overcome a life of trial that never abated but she made the choice to still see beauty in the world, to notice flowers among the thorns of life. It’s the same choice Paul calls Timothy to make: to ‘bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God’. And it’s the same call from God to Habakkuk: to ‘wait, for come it will, without fail’.

Faith that Grows Strong

St Thérèse’s powerful faith and determination echoes that of young Banner. Right now, for some of us, that might seem hard to attain. We might struggle with questions like these:

·     How much do we fight against doubt or impatience in our faith?

·     How can we trust in God’s timing, when answers seem delayed?

·     How often do we serve others without expecting anything in return?

·     What gifts has God given each of us, and how are we using them?

·     How does fear stop us from doing what God calls us to do?

St Thérèse and Banner didn’t develop a strong faith overnight. They were taught, then they believed, then they kept at it until it rooted in their souls, like the roots of the mulberry tree. So each challenge became easier to bear, not because it itself was easy, but because they trusted that God would make things right.

Today’s readings speak of faith that does what is needed out of love for God, faith that waits with hope because we know God has a vision, and faith that grows stronger with every action when we put our trust in Him to take care of the outcome. Each text today points to a life that relies on God, not on ourselves. Especially when life is unfair or unclear, or it seems we’re outsiders in a world that seems to be shunning God and His precepts.

The vision in Habakkuk promises that justice will eventually prevail. God assures us that those who live righteously will be rewarded, and He encourages us to keep the faith during hard times. In His time, and in His way, He will break His silence and assure us He is always going to catch us. The water won’t suddenly be still; no cushion will suddenly appear below us; no sudden burst of courage will suddenly ignite in us. But if we vigorously and constantly fan the flame of that little faith inside us, every jump will be infused with more hope, more internal strength.

Young Banner doesn’t pray with timidity and pleading. He practically demands Jesus make him brave in a voice so determined it’ll convince you he totally believes Jesus will do it. He doesn’t need to hang around to watch Jesus make it happen – he’s already moving to act.

Here’s the rest of what Banner’s mum says; you can read it in her post: 

‘We hear Banner saying this to himself in his room before bed and  he even shouted out to his teacher during swim lessons earlier this week. Yes, it’s cute, but it’s more than that…it’s inspiring.

There are many nights that I am right alongside him in his room as I prepare to kiss him goodnight that we both shout “Jesus, make me brave!” together. I am shouting it at my own fears, doubts & challenges. And you know what?

It builds my faith each time.’

This week ahead is going to be full of challenges everywhere I turn. I’m thinking – no, I will – take Banner’s lead and change my prayers a bit. If you happen to come across me shouting or standing with fists clenched like Banner and silently yelling, don’t be concerned. I’m okay. I haven’t lost the plot. I’m shouting to Jesus to make me brave, and then I’m jumping right into action, trusting that He’s going to catch me.

“Jesus! Make me brave!”

Article by Joyce Norma, HFC Blog Contributor