When, my beloved, the Lord descended from Mount Tabor with three of His disciples, James, John, and Peter, He came to where the other nine disciples were, surrounded by a large crowd of people and Pharisees. With them was an unfortunate father who had brought his possessed son to the apostles for healing, but they were unable to help him. And so he approached the Savior and addressed Him: "Lord, have mercy on my son... I brought him to Your disciples, and they were not able to heal him" (Matthew 17:15). Christ sighed and said: " O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? " He asked that the child be brought closer to Him, and He freed him from the demon.
When He was alone with His disciples, the apostles asked: “Why could we not cast out the demon?” The Lord answered: “Because of your unbelief” (Matthew 17:20).
The question arises: is it possible that we, baptized Christians, like the disciples who followed the Lord, live close to Christ, receive His blessings, and yet simultaneously be unbelievers? Why did those who were sent to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, perform miracles, and cast out demons, suddenly find themselves bereft of faith? Is it possible for unbelief to lurk deep within faith? Apparently, yes, my dears. We see this in our very lives. Unbelief can hide beneath the veil of faith—even the faith that seems fervent…
What can cause unbelief and cause it to persist deep in the heart? I think you're all interested in the answer to this question, because we all want to be truly religious.
Beloved, our rationalism , our rationality, is primarily to blame for this . Our excessive reliance on human reason and justifying everything with our own logic.
The Lord goes on to say, " If you have faith as a mustard seed "—that is, a small faith, but vibrant and active—" you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move " (Matthew 17:20). Anyone who seeks a "logical" and "rational" explanation for everything will immediately begin to ask questions: "How can a mountain move from its place, go, and fall into the sea? Is such a thing even possible?"
The rationalist seeks so-called "historical precedents" in everything; he does not rely on the Word of God, but uses his own way of thinking to interpret various phenomena. Rationalism is a disease of the human mind. The ability to reason, human logic, is created by God. But reason, as God's creation, must be able to understand its limitations and know that its ability to comprehend the surrounding world is limited. At some point, the mind must stop and say, "This is beyond my power to comprehend; let us rely on divine love, strength, and wisdom." However, the mind infected with rationalism refuses to stop. And because it is sick, it gives a diseased interpretation of everything. Rationalism is the diseased state of the old, fallen man. We are talking about the rationalism upon which man in general, and especially Western man, relies and by which he lives; rationalism becomes his daily bread. Despite the fact that the West is usually called “Christian,” rationalism often nests in the heart of Western man, which becomes the cause of unbelief, many manifestations of which we observe in the Western world.
But there's another reason that can give rise to unbelief: a depraved life , when a person ostensibly believes in God but lives a vicious life, committing mortal sins. And when they embrace this sinful lifestyle and don't confess it.
Every person sins. Does this mean we are all weak in faith because we sin? Absolutely not. I'm not talking about sins we repent of and reject. I'm talking about those sins that are "dear" to us and that we want to keep in our lives, and therefore we justify them... Some even go so far as to justify their sins with quotes from the Gospel. The latter is especially tragic. When Holy Scripture is used to justify a life of sin, it's horrific.
In such cases, my dears, we might recall what the Word of God, the Apostle and Evangelist John, tells us: “ The light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest their deeds should be exposed ” (John 3:19-20). This very accurately describes the psychology of a hardened sinner. “Everyone who does evil,” says the Evangelist John, “hates the light. Why? He stubbornly desires to lead a sinful life, but if he approaches the light, which is Christ, his life will become clear to everyone, his sinfulness will be exposed, he will be covered with shame and contempt. That is why he does not come to the light. And not only does he not come, but he also hates it. He rebels against the light, wanting to crucify it and banish it from his life forever, so that nothing remains to incriminate his conscience.
St. Augustine says these remarkable words: "No one denies God except those who are interested in His non-existence." And here is what St. Theophilus of Antioch ( second century) writes in his first letter to Autolycus, an idolater who doubted the existence of God:
"If you say, 'Show me your God,' I will answer you, 'Show me your man ( i.e., your life ), and I will show you my God... Show yourself, whether you are an adulterer, a fornicator, a thief, a robber, a kidnapper... envious, arrogant, proud, violent, a lover of money... For God does not reveal himself to those who do these things, unless they first cleanse themselves of all impurity. All this brings darkness, and just as an illness in the eyes does not allow them to turn to the light of the sun, so you, my friend, are darkened by iniquities so that you cannot see God."
All gifts, all divine energies descend to man from God. Love is nothing other than the energy-action of God, sent by Him to man. Man cannot love unless God grants him His energy, His uncreated energy. The same is true of faith. The Bible contains many passages that confirm this. Remember what Christ says: "No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him" (John 6:44). The word "draw" means that God must send us His divine, uncreated energy, which will arouse in us the desire to believe. Otherwise, man will not believe. "Does this mean," some will say, "that I was not drawn, and therefore I do not believe?"
It's different. Since I'm talking about attraction now, let me use a magnet as an example. My brother, if you are made of iron, then the magnet will attract you. But if you are made of bronze or aluminum, the magnet will have no effect on you. The magnet does not lose its ability to attract. It's all about you. It doesn't affect you because you are something else.
St. Theophilus makes another very important observation: "A person must have a soul as pure as a shining mirror. When a mirror is rusty, a person's face cannot be seen in it; so too, when a person has sin in him, he cannot contemplate God."
Divine rays, divine uncreated energies approach the soul to be reflected and returned... What is "reflection" ? My dears, "reflection" means that when God sends you the energy of faith, you must respond to it and say, "I believe, Lord." The reflection of divine rays will only occur if the mirror of your soul is clean and smooth. But it also happens that the mirror of the soul becomes covered in rust. Because of sins committed intentionally, by one's own corrupted will, because of deep-rooted egoism. In such a case, the mirror of the soul will be unable to reflect divine energy. This is why the Lord said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). And I, too, repeat these words to you all the time...
Source: https://myrophoros.blogspot.com/2022/08/blog-post_22.html