“…We walk by faith, not by sight.” What is the significance of these famous words of St. Paul? Are they true of my life? Are they true of your life?
“To walk by faith” is to allow the direction of our lives, the path of our lives, to be determined by our faith in Jesus Christ. Through prayer, reflection on the scriptures, active participation in the sacraments, and the teaching of our Church, we open our minds and hearts to the instruction of Jesus Christ and allow his teaching to shape who we are and how we live. Walking by faith, we see this world through eyes of faith which allow us to see the need for mercy, reconciliation, compassion, generosity and a profound concern for the poor and the powerless. In contrast, “to walk by sight” is focus on what the world teaches us should be the values that form who we are and what we do – instruction that comes to us through advertising, popular pundits, television and film. Walking by sight, we see our world through the eyes of this world. As a result, we see only the need to give our desires priority over the needs of others, we see the need to exact vengeance and retribution for every offense committed against us, and we see the need to ignore the poor, the powerless and the vulnerable.
It would be wonderful if we each of us could say that we have chosen to walk by faith and not by sight. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that we are not always consistent in allowing the teaching of Jesus to shape what we think, what we feel and what we do. Sometimes we simply cannot resist the allure of the values of this world. We see an easy path to our own self-fulfillment, to our own self-gratification, to our own personal happiness. This is why we need a consistent life of prayer to allow Jesus to correct the course of our lives when we have strayed from the path that he has set before us.
Remember, only when we walk by faith can we live in the hope that our final destination will be eternal life with God.