“Blessed the one who greatly delights in the Lord’s commands.”
Today, we hear the most famous lines from the book of James “faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” and “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” These lines flow out from James’ wisdom all week – be doers of the word and not just hearers of the word.
Faith can be thought of as a personal act of belief in a proposition. “I have faith that God is real, or I believe that I am saved.” But in the biblical vision of faith, it is more than personal assent to a truth, it is an act of entrustment. Abraham’s faith was manifested in his trust, and it was in his faith in God that Abraham was blessed by righteousness. Jesus’ last words before his death were an act of entrustment to God. Through this vision of faith, we see why works play an essential role in the character of our faith, because our trust is manifested in how we live and what we do.
Our faith and act of entrustment to God is always an embodied act. Our faith can never just be an intellectual assent to something alone, or a private act of agreement that cuts me off from service and love. It’s the same principle regarding love: love in words and not in deeds is also dead.
In the Divine Mercy revelation of the 20th century, Jesus asked the world to pray “Jesus I trust in you.” Let us reflect on these words of James today and pray about our own notions of faith, or works, of trust and of love. Where does my trust in God need to grow, and how can my trust be expressed in concrete actions of Love?