Radical Faith! What Is It?

𝐅𝐄𝐁. 𝟐𝟒, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐈𝐬𝐚 𝟓𝟓:𝟏𝟎-𝟏𝟏

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟑𝟒:𝟒-𝟕, 𝟏𝟔-𝟏𝟗 “𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐌𝐭 𝟔:𝟕-𝟏𝟓

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: “𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝..” (𝐯.𝟖) 

          In the years I spent in the Catholic school where I was enrolled in my younger days, religion was a major part of the curriculum, and the week ends with the Sunday morning mass which was mandatory for all the students and pupils.

         All of us pupils had a Mass Card that needed to be signed by the Mother Superior after the mass. And we look forward to these Sunday masses because the Mother Superior will hand out to each one of us a pack of sweet orange candies after our mass cards have been signed.

         My experience of what faith is all about started with my parents and relatives who were traditional Catholics who attend the Sunday Mass because it was a holy day of obligation. I was taught to pray before and after meals and before going to sleep at night which is why the Prayer to St. Michael had been carved in my mind and heart which I never forgot up to now.

         I thought of my faith simply as an act of honoring God during Sundays and in my prayer times before bedtime and I didn’t know that there are different levels of faith. And this I learned when our Lord brought me to the renewal movement many years back, and I was introduced to the stages of faith.

         I still vividly remember one of the exhortations during his pastoral meeting with the servant leaders of the Bukas Loob sa Diyos Covenant Community (Open in Spirit to God), the late global spiritual director of the BLD, His Grace Archbishop Angel Lagdameo sounded a call for the leaders of the BLD Community to approach the trials and challenges of the present time with a radical kind of faith.

         The call at that time was considered timely as the Catholic Church was celebrating the Year of Faith which was a period that the Church has prescribed for the lay faithful to go back to their roots in the practice of the Catholic faith.

         To be radical in the practice of our faith is to be able to gather the boldness to espouse the truth of God’s Word even in an unconventional or unorthodox manner. It means that there will be times when we can look like a square peg in a round hole.

         To put it simply, a Christian who professes allegiance to Jesus Christ should be born anew (𝟐 𝐂𝐨𝐫 𝟓:𝟏𝟕), to be like a grain of wheat (𝐉𝐧 𝟏𝟐:𝟐𝟒) and, to be the salt of the earth without losing flavor (𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝟓:𝟏𝟑).

         To be radical is to develop a change of heart, a change of mindset and a change of attitude. This means taking risks in the proclamation of the Gospel which at times will make us unpopular as Jesus was, but this is the kind of radicalization that we will have to pursue if we are to help in building the Kingdom of God here on earth.

         To be radical is to dispossess ourselves of our human wisdom and allow the wisdom of God to dominate our entire person such that our words, actions and decisions are all in accord with the Will of God which is to transfigure all his created beings into the image and likeness to which they have been created.

         To be radical is to think of ways on how to proclaim the Gospel amidst the changing societies and cultures that call us to live our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is “𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐫, 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐬, 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.” (𝐒𝐭. 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐈𝐈)        

        I also remember that the late Pope Benedict XVI in his time said that radical faith is  a kind of evangelization that is directed “𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘣𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥, 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦... 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭, 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.”        

         Someone will probably ask how to do all this. We need not invent new strategies as if the Gospel were a product to be placed in the market of religions. We only need to rediscover the ways in which Jesus approached persons and called them, to put them into practice in today's circumstances. Sadly, however, there are many including Christian leaders who have opted to follow their human wisdom rather than listen to what God is saying through the Church.

         The call of Archbishop Lagdameo can be regarded as a clarion call not only for us in the BLD Community but for all Christian disciples because the world that Jesus was born into more than 2,000 years ago has remained basically the same today.

         As Jesus had to pursue a radical process of evangelization in his time, so we too are now being called to also adopt a radical way of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ and Archbishop Lagdameo strongly suggests that those who wish to follow Christ must disengage themselves from human intimacies (𝐋𝐤 𝟗:𝟓𝟕-𝟓𝟖).

         In other words, every Christian especially those who wish to follow Christ must be aware of the cost of discipleship and to follow Christ is to be radical in our mindsets, attitude and relationships.

         When a Scribe said: “𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒐,” Jesus simply replied “𝒇𝒐𝒙𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅.” (𝑳𝒌 9:58). 

          It means that we are to understand that this world is not our home. That when we go and make disciples of all nations we are to keep moving and not remain stationary and complacent and comfortable and rest on our laurels. We also cannot stop moving because our community or ministry has no budget to spend to send missionaries to the field because there are many means to evangelize by being radical in our faith.  

         A Christian is always on the move and to follow Christ is to do what he did – to be radical as he was radical which means making a commitment to follow Our Lord Jesus after we have counted the cost.

         A person who responds to Jesus because of an emotional appeal will not last in times of hardship. But a person, having seriously considered the cost of following Christ that is premised on detachment from the world and makes a commitment to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth is the one who will endure till he breathes his last.

         This is the message of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading in which he warned his disciples against what he describes as formalism in prayer which most oftentimes turns prayer into a mechanical process but devoid of substance and meaning as the intent is to impress others rather than the pursuit of an intimate relationship with God.

         When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he gave them a pattern on how they are to pray and he begins by giving the disciples then and we in today’s generation the privilege to also call God as “𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.”

         This was a radical departure from the way the Jews prayed in those days because Jesus has introduced a new form of prayer in which we can all approach God as Our Father with confidence and boldness because Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection.

         There may be times, however, when we will ask God for help and he will not give us what we pray for. But God will respond with Grace, favor and mercy as it is his nature to love generously and to forgive mercifully. When God gives, he gives more than we need so we will have something to share with others in their need as well.

         As radical as he could be, Jesus stressed that unless we forgive others, we also will not be forgiven. God is kind and forgiving towards us. In fact, he even offered his very life for the forgiveness of our sins so that we may be able to stand erect in the presence of God and Christ expects us to also treat our neighbor in the same way that he treated us.

         To forgive others even if we don’t feel like forgiving them is one of the radical ways by which we can express our faith. Whenever we ask God to forgive us of our sins, we should also ask ourselves: Have I forgiven others who have wronged me? To be radical requires humility and obedience. Are you ready to be a radical Christian? (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘍𝘦𝘣. 24, 2026)