James 1:1-11 / Mark 8:11-13
The life of a Christian is certainly no different from the life of the others around him.
By and large, whether atheist or believer, rich or poor, religious or laity, man or woman, life has its difficulties and struggles.
More so for us who believe in God, we are certainly not spared of these turmoils of life, and we cannot expect to either.
We are either coming out of a storm or headed towards one, though there might be a moment of peace when we are in the eye of the storm.
Yet we must continue to believe that although God did not promise us that there will be no storms, He did promise us that He will be with us in the storm.
This faith in God is a powerful sign for others to recognize that God is indeed truly with us in our difficult and stormy moments.
The problem the Pharisees had with Jesus was that they expected Him to work spectacular and phenomenal signs.
Jesus refused to give them any of these kind of signs because He has already given them the example of His life.
To give them more signs would be like to show a blind man more pictures.
In Jesus, we see how our Master faced His difficulties and struggles and He showed us how to overcome them by putting His faith in God His Father.
The 1st reading attested to this and urges us to see our trials as a blessed privilege for growth of a deeper faith in God.
Faith is like a teabag. You have to put it in hot water before you know how strong it is.