Obstacles to Faith
We have spoken in recent weeks about the Resurrection and faith in it. We wish to mention that some people, despite the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, and despite seeing the angels and seeing the empty tomb, nevertheless did not walk in a life of faith…!!
So what are the obstacles to faith? And what are the obstacles to the spiritual life?
Obstacles to Faith (1)
The priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees saw the empty tomb and verified the resurrection of the Lord Christ. Yet they did not believe. They used bribery and invented lies by which they misled the people concerning the Resurrection, and they put these lies into the mouths of the soldiers: “Say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away’” (Matt 28:13).
What, then, was the first reason that hindered the faith of these people? It was the self.
+ The Self as an Obstacle to Faith:
At times, the self stands as a barrier between a person and God. One may think that God is a competitor to him, or an obstacle to his paths and desires.
Those priests thought that the Lord Christ was a competitor to them, who would take away their authority and popularity and their positions. Truly, the greatest enemy of a person is his own self when it becomes distorted. Therefore, the Lord said to everyone who wants to follow Him, “Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”
As long as a person thinks about himself, it is possible that he may lose God for the sake of himself. Thus Satan fell and perished, because he focused on himself—how to exalt himself—even if in doing so he competed with God.
Among those who also fell because of the self are the existentialist atheists. One of them says: The existence of God obstructs my existence. So it is better that God not exist, so that I may exist…!!
They fight against the existence of God because they fear Him. They fear that God will restrict their freedom, and they view His commandments as constraints. Therefore, this distorted concern with the self and its freedom hinders their faith.
Does your own self also hinder your faith? Is your relationship with God hindered because of your desires, instincts, thoughts, lusts, and tendencies?
Is there a conflict between God and your self? Then deny your self… resist it, overcome it. For “he who rules his spirit is better than he who takes a city.” So let your self be in your hand, and do not let yourself be in its hand.
The scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, and the elders were keen on their self in a wrong way. There were defects within their selves, and Christ revealed them, even without speaking about them. By mere comparison they were exposed. Therefore, they hated Him, because He exposed them—because He was a light that uncovered their darkness.
Like a thief who works in the dark and hates the light because it exposes him.
He wants to work in the dark so that he may remain concealed. Therefore, Scripture said about them that “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
It is supposed that if God reveals your self to you, you should rejoice and be glad, and rather thank Him, saying: “I thank You, O Lord, because You made me understand my reality and showed me the hidden things of my soul and its diseases, so that I may heal them.”
But many people see their selves as beautiful in their own eyes. Their self is their idol. It is difficult for them to see a fault in it that they should blame, or that people should blame.
Only the saints are those who blame themselves and deny themselves.
As for the scribes and the Pharisees, what hindered them from faith was the self—love of the self, pride in the self, the desire to magnify the self, to glorify the self, and to flee from God whom they thought would destroy their self… like the prodigal son, who thought that his self would be lost in his father’s house, so he left the father so that his self might attain its freedom…! It was his self that troubled him.
Many people want their self to live in an atmosphere of pampering, flattery, and praise. Therefore, anyone who speaks to them frankly upsets them. They reject all rebuke and all discipline…!
The saints who walked in the way of God did not care about the self, but listened to the Lord’s saying: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt 10:39). Thus we see a man like Paul saying: “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” The Apostle Paul did what the scribes and the Pharisees could not do. They feared for their positions, but he sacrificed his position. After having authority by which he could “drag men and women and commit them to prison” (Acts 8:3), they lowered him in a basket in Damascus, and he was exposed to prison, beating, scourging, stoning, and labored more than all, and his motto became:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). He lost his self, and thus he found it in Christ.
The priests and the elders found themselves—they found authority, position, the chief seats, and respect—and they got rid of Christ. Thus they lost themselves and did not find them. The self destroyed them and stood between them and faith.
There is another type who saw the Resurrection and did not believe because of weakness of personality, weakness of soul, or being influenced by people’s words.
Weakness of Personality Weakens Faith:
From this type is Mary Magdalene. She saw the empty tomb, heard the angel’s announcement, and even saw the Lord Christ after His Resurrection, held His feet, heard His voice, and was entrusted with a message. Yet she said to Peter and John: “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” What is the secret of this transformation, and how did her faith weaken?
Magdalene was young in age. Her personality weakened before the rumors spread by the priests, and she also weakened before the disciples’ lack of belief in the Resurrection. Thus doubts and imaginations began to play with her.
Her faith could not withstand rumors and people’s talk, so she was shaken inwardly by external influence.
Many people are shaken inwardly because of people’s words—because of people’s mockery of their spiritual conduct. Their personality is weaker than to endure.
God wants your personalities to be strong, as the Apostle says: “Always ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.” The children of God are not weak; they are not of the type whose faith or spirituality is shaken for any external reason. They act according to the Apostle’s saying:
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58).
Do not be like the one about whom the poet said:
Like a feather flying in the wind… never settled, anxious in every state.
Rather, be strong, with the power of the Resurrection working in you, granting you hope, faith, and confidence. By this power you preserve your faith from being lost.
There is another type that is weak and loses faith because of fear.
+ Fear Weakens Faith:
Pontius Pilate was convinced in his depths that Jesus of Nazareth was innocent of the charges that the Jews attached to Him, and he was certain that they had delivered Him out of envy. He tried to release Him, but in the end he surrendered to his weakness and delivered Christ to be crucified. He feared that it would be said of him that he was against Caesar.
He was a governor, and all authority was in his hand. King Herod before him had killed all the children of Bethlehem and did not care. Pilate himself had destroyed the Galileans. Yet in this case he was afraid, and fear destroyed him.
Many lost faith because of their fear. Therefore, the Book of Revelation places the fearful before idolaters and states that their destiny is the lake burning with fire and brimstone. In this the divine inspiration says:
“But the fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8).
The great Apostle Peter, when he feared, denied Christ and cursed and swore. It is not fitting that fear should rule over the children of God, for fear did not enter the world except after sin (Gen 3:10).
There is a beautiful saying recorded for Saint Augustine, in which he said:
“I sat on the summit of the world when I felt within myself that I feared nothing and desired nothing.”
Truly, lust gives birth to fear. Whoever desires something fears that he may not obtain it, and if he obtains it, he fears that he may lose it. But the children of God do not love the world or the things in the world. Their only desire is God, and they love everything that leads to Him.
The spiritual person never loses his faith at all, because he does not fear. The congregation of believers are those who do not fear, but say with David: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me,” and “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, in this I am confident” (Ps 23, 27).
There are people who lost faith because of fear, others because of weakness, others because of the self, and others because of lust.
The rich young man who went away sorrowful is an example of losing faith because of lust. Faith also needs, for its steadfastness, trust and practical experience.
Those who have experienced the sweetness of life with Christ and tasted it find it difficult for their faith to weaken.
Intellectual faith may weaken, but practical experiential faith is strong. It does not know God from books, but from life. It is faith in Christ “whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have looked upon, and our hands have handled.”
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Sixth Year (Issue Twenty-Two), 30-5-1975.
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