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Bodily we do not see Christ the Lord, but by faith we undoubtedly see Him everywhere: both with the Father sitting in heaven, and dwelling on earth in His Holy Church, according to the words of David: “The Lord is His throne in heaven” (Ps. 10:4), and living among His faithful servants: “The Lord is around His people” (Ps. 124:2), and especially present in each of us. “I have always seen,” it is said, “the Lord before me, for He is at my right hand” (Ps. 15:8) (1). According to the words of Saint Ambrose: “Faith has insofar as a person believes.” He who believes little receives little, and he who believes more receives more. Whoever believes that God’s Providence will be accomplished in him, it will happen, and whoever doesn’t believe, it won’t. If someone, praying earnestly and diligently, believes that God hears his prayers, then He really does, and whoever does not believe does not hear him. If someone believes that he will receive what he asks for, he will receive it, but if he does not believe, he will not receive it. “Faith has as much value as a person believes” (1). Gold buys expensive things, and for a chervonet of faith you can’t buy anything! If your spiritual gold of faith were as great as a mustard seed, then you would buy yourself such strength that you could move mountains: “If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but if you also say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” it will happen” (Matthew 21:21). Our ancestors bought whatever they wanted with this gold. They wanted to conquer the monarchies of the whole world: “By faith they conquered kingdoms.” They wanted to grow in virtues and, having ascended to the heights of virtue, earn the title of righteous people: “By faith they did righteousness.” They wanted to receive what was promised from God: “By faith we received the promises.” They wanted to tame fierce animals, lions and leopards: “By faith they stopped the mouths of lions.” They wanted to be brave knights in order to defeat their enemies: “By faith they were strengthened from weakness, they were strong in war, they drove away the regiments of strangers.” They finally wanted to see the dead rising from their graves, and this they received: “By faith they received their dead raised again” (Heb. 11:33–35). These are the expensive things they bought with the gold of faith! (1) [The Apostle Paul], pouring out in chapter eleven all his inspired and prudent goodwill in praising the holy faith, calls her first of all a priest, a priest, for for her sake God accepted Abel’s sacrifices. Faith is youth without old age, for Enoch, delighted with it, still lives and has not grown old. Faith is the ark in which Noah was saved. Faith is motherhood, for by faith Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Faith is also a living, bloodless sacrifice, for by faith Abraham offered his son Isaac as a living sacrifice, without shedding his blood, and for him faith was a sheath for the knife with which he wanted to stab his son. Faith is an intelligent eye, for it knows how to bless Jacob and how to bless Esau. Faith is a prophet, for with it Joseph predicted the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt. In Moses, faith was fear and a scourge on Pharaoh and all of Egypt. Faith is the bottom of the sea that carried Israel dry. In Joshua, faith is an assault that breaks down the walls of Jericho. Oh, how many great praises of the holy faith the apostle wrote! Let us also look carefully at how the apostle ends his praises: “By faith Rahab the harlot... did not perish” (Heb. 11:31). Faith, he says, is the only salvation for a sinner or a sinner: “By faith Rahab the harlot... did not perish.” Someone here might say to St. Paul, “Saint Paul! Have you not become exhausted by writing praises of faith? Look, do you write and speak well when you equate the accursed unclean harlot wife with the faithful Abel, with the pure Enoch, with the godly Noah, with the worthy patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and with other holy forefathers? Couldn't you really miss her, not remember her, not compare her with such great saints and not put the harlot and God's saints on the same page? Saint Paul, who said that by faith Rahab the harlot... did not perish, now as if wondering, now rejoicing and triumphing over the salvation of the sinner, adds the following words: “And what else will I say?” (Heb. 11:32) - that is, what more can be said? What could be more amazing and more glorious than the fact that the harlot is among the saints, the unclean is numbered among the pure, the hostile to God is among the saints of God?.. Hear this, every sinner, and hope! Here is the sure hope of God’s mercy for a sinner who rises from his sins! Throw away sin immediately, break your evil custom, spit out sinful passions, trample them underfoot, rise with repentance, turn to God, begin to repent, begin immediately, without delay, and say: “I said: now I have begun” (Ps. 76:11). Then the Apostle Paul himself will place you on an equal footing with the great saints, just as Rahab placed the harlot with Moses, Abraham and the others (1). By faith and love, as the right path, all of us Christians will follow Christ, we will follow by faith and at the same time with good deeds. Somewhere the following story is told about faith. Once upon a time, all the virtues gathered in one place and drew up advice on how to divide a good person among themselves, like some kind of wealth, so that each virtue had a special part in a person and a place in which it would sit, as in its own home. Prudence and wisdom took their head and settled in the brain. Godly silence settled in the lips: “Put a guard, O Lord, on my lips” (Ps. 141:3). Repentance took her hair so that together with Mary Magdalene she could wipe Christ’s feet. Obedience was given legs, but patience was given a backbone. Fasting sat in the stomach, and sighing to God sat in the chest. Honesty was given a place in the human face, and chaste shame - in the eyes. Divine love embraced the heart: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart” (Mark 12:30), and holy faith, as the primary virtue, took for itself two parts in man: ears and hands. She took her ears so that she could be heard, and her hands so that she could be performed and accomplished. The place of faith is in hearing, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, who says: “Faith therefore comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. How can we believe in Him of whom we have not heard?” (Rom. 10:14, 17). And the fact that the place of faith is also in the hands, this means that it is manifested in deeds. “Show me,” it is said, “your faith without your works, for faith without works is dead” (James 2:18, 20). So, by faith, as the first virtue and the first path, we will follow Christ along with good deeds... Having called holy faith the first virtue and the first path, I doubted a little... which way is the first, which virtue is the first: faith or love? After all, both without faith and without love it is impossible to be saved, for love also has its own height that surpasses everything, according to what is written: “love is greater than all” (see 1 Cor. 13:13) (1). Faith reaches the sight of God, hope reaches the receipt of those blessings that “no eye has seen” (1 Cor. 2:9), but love reaches the very heart of God, which is the source and beginning of all love (2). Truly precious are those pearls, without which it is impossible both to be a Christian and to receive salvation. The Apostle says: “without faith it is impossible to please God.” And again: “the righteous shall live by faith” (Heb. 11:6; Rom. 1:17). Therefore, it is appropriate to buy these pearls by selling everything (2). It is impossible for anyone to receive healing or any gift from God without faith. The physician of souls and bodies, the Son of God, healing every disease and every infirmity in people, demanded faith everywhere, and by faith gave healing (Matthew 4:23, 9:29). So in Capernaum, through the faith of the centurion, He healed his servant: “Go, and as you have believed, so be it done for you. And his servant was healed that hour” (Matthew 8:13). So the bleeding one: “Go ahead, daughter! Your faith has saved you, and you have been saved from that hour” (Matthew 9:22). Likewise to the two blind men: “According to your faith, be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened” (Matthew 9:29–30). Also to the Canaanite woman: “O woman! great is your faith; let it be done to you according to your desire” (Matthew 15:28). And he saved many others by faith. Oh, how powerful is faith in prayer to receive a request! Saint Cyprian is surprised, remembering the thief on the cross: how such a sinner, who lived his entire life in murders and other iniquities, at the end of his death, with his short prayer, opened paradise to himself, and asks the Lord: “What, Lord, gave to Stephen greater than this thief? What more did Thy beloved disciple, who reclined on Thy breast at supper, receive? What makes Pavlov's sweats more restful? How were so many saints rewarded for their various torments, wounds and deaths? In one hour that robber was rewarded with the reward that they had received through so much labor and sorrow.” But don’t be surprised, Saint Cyprian! I will give you the words of your heavenly roommate in response, Saint Ambrose, who tells you how with great faith, albeit in small prayer, the thief opened the door of heaven for himself. For when our Lord, during His free suffering, was abandoned by everyone, when he was rejected by Peter, who promised to die with Him, then only one thief believed Him and, confessing Him, called Him the Lord of the Reign: “Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom!” (Luke 23:42). Here one could see the great faith of the thief: when everyone’s faith became weak, when all those who believed were offended in Christ, he was not offended, but prayed to Him with faith, for which he heard: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43)... Do we hear that faith can? So we will also acquire it for ourselves in our prayer, so that we can receive what we ask for. Our Lord Himself teaches us: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and it will be done for you” (Mark 11:24). And Saint James instructs: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask with faith, without any doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, lifted and tossed by the wind. Let such a person not think that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:5–7) (3). Believe in God, believe in God; Always have self-control in everything. Constantly remember death and the change of all things, and nothing in the world will possess you (3). What is faith based on? On the revelations of God, on what God revealed through the prophets and apostles, for what is visible cannot be an object of faith, as it is written: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29) (3). Faith is the knowledge of things hoped for, the revelation of things unseen. Faith is nothing more than believing in what we do not see (3). You might be interested in: