Living appropriately in the Mystery

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary appear to offer concise clear rules for life. When we look closer the concise contents are full of contradiction. The message of James to the Christian community is, according to Friar Jude Winkler, a prologue to the topics to be included in his longer letter. The faith that James asks the reader to embrace is the faith which is tested with trial. Is this approach to faith development likely to bring great numbers into the infant Christian communities? Perhaps encouraging those with a weaker attachment would swell the numbers? James underlines the zest which he desires to see among the Christians. It is borrowed from the Jewish dialogue with God, like Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof, which addresses God with the certainty of faith and knowledge of our position of surrender before God in combination with the experience of the delight of God in us. In the Gospel of Mark, the Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign. Would he not win them over and win us over today with a sign? Why not help our weak attachment with the proof we seek? This might just fill the churches again. The attributes of faith and attachment praised by the psalmist, humility and steadfast love, are experienced in the Way of faith which is grounded in trial. The seer who is seeing with the eyes of God must learn to look with the eyes of God.