Unexpected signs of faith – that don’t require it

I once read a story about an atheist who came to faith through the witness of Christians who were living radically altered lives. This man went to work amongst the poorest of the poor in violent, crime-ridden areas. He evangelized in the slums, working with drug lords, prostitutes, pimps, and rival gang members. Incredible conversations began to take place: healing, reconciliation, and other extraordinary happenings. Somehow the cardinal archbishop of the town heard about it, called him in, and asked, “How are you doing?” The man said, “Through my own life and my own conversion, I came to be convinced that people need ‘signs of faith’ that don’t require faith.”

What are “’signs of faith’ that don’t require faith”? As this man knew, they are actions, sacrifices, love, and miracles that are life changing. These are things that nonbelievers witness, and when they do, even if they don’t believe in God, at their core they somehow understand that only God could enable such things to happen. This is what happened in the early Church. People saw signs of faith that didn’t require faith, and even though they didn’t yet believe in the God of Jesus Christ, they knew that only God could be behind such signs.

Let’s look at some of those early signs of faith. First was the care of the sick. In ancient times, if a plague or epidemic broke out, and especially if you had the financial means, you headed off to your villa in the mountains or down by the sea or wherever you could go to protect yourself. No one thought of rushing in to take care of the sick, especially if they were not relatives and, more especially, if it meant that you yourself could get sick or die. No one, that is, until the Christians. The Christians cared for one another, for those to whom they weren’t related, and for those who were not Christians. They did so out of love, mindful of Jesus’ command to love one another as He has loved us.

A second sign of faith is care for the poor. Three times in the New Testament, St. Paul talks about a collection being taken up for Jewish Christians in Jerusalem by Gentile Christians in other countries. We don’t give such things a thought these days. If you go to church, there’s a collection at every Mass, and sometimes there are two or even three. But before the early Christians, no one ever took up a collection in one part of the world for unrelated, afflicted foreigners in another part of the world, especially not Gentiles donating their hard-earned money to Jews. It was unheard of, but suddenly – because of the Gospel – other human beings were your family, so you helped them, even at great personal cost.

Excerpt from Rescued: The Unexpected and Extraordinary News of The Gospel, by Fr. John Riccardo (The Word Among Us Press, 2020), pp. 168-69, www.wau.org

FR. JOHN RICCARDO is a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit and the founder and executive director of ACTS XXIX, an apostolate that equips clergy and lay leaders for today’s apostolic age. Fr. John is the host of “You Were Born for This” podcast. His popular show, “Christ Is the Answer,” is broadcast daily over the EWTN radio network.