Superheroes, faith and miracles—Oh My! While it may be a wee bit dangerous to equate modern-day superheroes with Jesus, theologically speaking—this weekend’s Gospel of Mark (6: 1-6) does make you wonder why Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deed in His hometown, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He mentions their “lack of faith.” Was that faithlessness a form of “kryptonite” that prevented Him from His miraculous deeds? It seems, from Jesus’ own words, it was?

But comparing Christ to a superhero? Well, I did receive as a gift this Christmas—a long-sleeved T-shirt that had the image of Jesus at the Last Supper, surrounded not by His apostles but rather by Batman,Spiderman, the Hulk and 9 other superheroes and Jesus handing them the Eucharist as He said, “This is how I saved the world.” Whether we are a little child dreaming of supernatural powers to save the world or an adult on our faith journey hoping to believe in something beyond ourselves—we are, at every age—hoping to believe in something greater than “me, myself and I.”

In today’s gospel we hear something very much akin to last week’s gospel message of faith-inspired healing. Recall the hemorrhaging woman who simply by having faith in Christ’s power knew that if she but touched His clothes, she would be healed. Today’s gospel is the opposite, by the lack of faith of those who knew Jesus best, He is unable to perform miracles. Scripture scholars tells us that Jesus’ closest friends—born in the midst of the everyday life are unsure of Him, due to their lack of faith, He was unable to do much. So what’s the difference between magic—or super powers—and faith?

Our Church teaches us that to have faith in Christ requires a “faith dialogue” with the Divine. Jesus does not come to us as a Wizard with potions, tricks, spells or incantations but rather He comes with Truth—and Truth and its acceptance requires an active faith—a free assent of the will, as the Church calls it, to believe what we hear in Scripture, from the teachings and lived actions of Christ—and to accept and believe. We believe the Sacraments are signs of God’s grace in our lives. To believe in these graces, we hope in God’s Power and His Power becomes real in our lives.

The late Father Eugene LaVerdiere, S.S.S., Scripture scholar and Senior Editor of Emmanuel magazine, wrote of Jesus’ amazement of the people’s lack of faith as a closure (or refusal) to His open dialogue, “For without (their) faith, He had no affect (on them).” Last Tuesday, 3 July 2018 on the Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (doubting Thomas), the Gospel of the day said “Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Let’s have an honest faith dialogue—and come to know and believe in Christ. Have faith, trust--and be believing!