Heal Your Life: Awakening to the Power of Faith—Hope—Love—Prayer

By Jean Maalouf

For our very survival and sanity, we need God.

We need virtue. We need character. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil thing out of an evil treasure (Matthew 12:35). Godly people make all the difference in the world by striving to match the politics of the earth with the politics of the kingdom of God.

By talking about uncovering the healing power of faith, hope, love, and prayer, this book uncovers at the same time the secret of sanitythe sanity that runs our lives at the individual level, as well as at the national and international levels. Sanity requires the rejection of the gods weve created by learning to focus on the God in whose image weve been created.

Billions of dollars are spent every year on the pursuit of physical perfection. People do anything to become richer, more powerful, or more prestigiouswith improved appearances and more pleasing makeup in all domains as if the only value that really counts is the most attractive picture we are able to show. In this very expensive race for the outside perfect masks, the pursuit of inner beauty can often be pushed aside when this inner beauty is by far more important than the outer beauty. Dont we know that the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7)?

In this book, Heal Your Life: Awakening to the Power of FaithHopeLovePrayer, Dr. Maalouf masterly invites us to reject the double lifestyle we are living and to genuinely consider living by the truth of the permeation and integration of theology and politics. Politics, Pope Paul VI declared, is the highest form of charity. And we can add that charity is the highest form of political sanity as well. Indeed, real politics takes action and contemplation. All our crises are rooted in our spiritual crisis first.

For our sanity and survival, God is needed. For our sanity and survival, the politics of the earth should match the politics of the kingdom of God, as this book explains.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543417708

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Jean Maalouf.

Library of Congress Control Number:  2017906150

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5434-1772-2

             Softcover     978-1-5434-1771-5

             eBook           978-1-5434-1770-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

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Unless otherwise indicated, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

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To

Those who are striving,

each and every day,

to make the politics of the earth

match

the politics of the kingdom of God.

Everything is possible for one who believes, still more for one who hopes, even more for one who loves, and most of all for one who practices and perseveres in these three virtues.

— Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

— Saint Augustine

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

— St. Thomas Aquinas

Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a gift from God.

— Blaise Pascal

Faith is like electricity. You can’t see it, but you can see the light.

— Unknown

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

— Mahatma Gandhi

I place no hope in my strength, nor in my works: but all my confidence is in God my protector, who never abandons those who have put all their hope and thought in him.

— Francois Rabelais

Many believe - and I believe - that I have been designated for this work by God. In spite of my old age, I do not want to give it up; I work out of love for God and I put all my hope in Him.

— Michelangelo

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

— Desmond Tutu

To live without Hope is to Cease to live.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.

—Norman Cousins

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man.

— Victor Hugo

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

—Marcus Aurelius

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

— Maya Angelou

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

— Maya Angelou

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

— Erich Fromm

God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.

— Mother Teresa

God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.

— Mother Teresa

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

— Soren Kierkegaard

Contents

Prologue

FAITH

Introduction

Chapter 1: Why Is It So Hard to Find God?

Chapter 2: The Inner Eye of Faith

Chapter 3: Faith Therapy

Conclusion

HOPE

Introduction

Chapter 4: The Not Yet Experience

Chapter 5: The Dimensions of Christian Hope

Chapter 6: Doctor Hope

Conclusion

LOVE

Introduction

Chapter 7: What does Love Mean?

Chapter 8: The Ultimate Love Story

Chapter 9: Heart Matters

Conclusion

PRAYER

Introduction

Chapter 10: Why Do You Pray the Way You Pray?

Chapter 11: To Which God Do You Pray?

Chapter 12: Prayer Is Good for You

Conclusion

Epilogue: A Political Manifesto Guide The Lord’s Prayer

About the Author

Also by Dr. Jean Maalouf

Prologue

The book you are about to read is describing the healing power of Faith, Hope, Love, Prayer, in our lives; therefore it is about sanity – individual sanity, inter-groups’ sanity, and inter-nations’ sanity. It is about the political sanity of the way we live and relate to ourselves and others. Gone are the days of the separation between conceptual spirituality and the holiness of the daily practice, spirit and matter, thinking and being, and theology and politics. Politics, Pope Paul VI declared, is the highest form of charity.

To reject the gods we’ve created over the years by learning to focus on the God in whose image we’ve been created is not only a big deal, but also, and especially, a revolutionary way of living a meaningful, happy, and fulfilled life.

Faith, Hope, Love, Prayer are the foundation of Christian activity. They animate it. They orient it. They make the faithful capable of acting as children of God. They inspire and direct these children to act according to God’s will, as Jesus would have acted. They are the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties and talents of the human being. They are the very politics of heaven and aspire to be the very politics of the earth as well.

No wonder we see at the present time, alongside the materialistic mentality that is invading our culture, a counter-cultural wave of spiritually enlightened people who are calling for a higher consciousness and for spreading the reality of existential transcendence in the footsteps of the fully divine and fully human Jesus. This also explains the reason behind the attraction that many of us have toward the spirituality of the desert fathers and mothers of the past who were people of high character – virtuous, good, righteous, pure of heart. In the spirituality of those saints and in the way they lived their lives, great answers are found for the problems of the 21st century. Indeed, they showed us in an existential way that every crisis is a spiritual crisis in the first place, and every solution should also be, and before anything else, spiritual. Therefore, a book on Faith, Hope, Love, Prayer, should always be included in our favorite reading lists. Spiritual life makes a positive contribution to our civilization by making our lives better, more meaningful, and more fulfilled.

This is, in substance, what this book hopes to accomplish. It wants to describe the practical side of the highly theological and philosophical concepts and how they contribute, here and now, in the healing of the individual person, the collective groups in society, and the whole world.

Although virtue is not the talk of the town these days except when it is ridiculed or when it is in the polls and the news reports to prove that it is dead or at least has no real value because it does not produce money, still people know what it is. Ask the so-called conservative people who know how to preach to others about the appropriate conduct even when they don’t always follow what they preach; they know well that doing so could be good for business or for the elections. Ask the so-called liberal people who cry for justice when they, themselves, are among the first to commit the worst crimes. Ask even the relativist people who do not have a final answer for anything, and who, when their houses were subjected to burglaries and their families were abused, insist on the necessity for a society to live according to a strict moral law.

We need virtue. We need a Christian character. We need God. We need to be in God’s image. We need Faith, Hope, Love, Prayer. It is a question of survival, sanity, and a meaningful life and happiness. When one is truly happy, one is also holy and healthy, and wants to communicate to others the secret of his or her well-being so they can overcome their existential malaise. It is St. Augustine who revealed this secret in his famous line, You have made us for yourself, [O Lord], and our hearts are restless until they can find peace in you.

Billions of dollars are spent every year on the pursuit of physical perfection. People do anything to become richer, more powerful, more prestigious – with improved appearances and more pleasing make-ups in all domains as if the only value that really counts is the most attractive picture we are able to show. In this very expensive race for the outside perfect masks, the pursuit of inner beauty can often be pushed aside when this inner beauty is by far more important than the outer beauty. Thus, the role of the character cannot be more urgently needed. Indeed, it is the character that makes all the difference in the world. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil thing out of an evil treasure (Matthew 12:35). A book on the power of Faith, Hope, Love, Prayer contributes a great deal to building that very character that is badly needed.

This book is a transformative book, and if read thoroughly and attentively, one will not stay the same. This is what happens when one deals with the Absolute, the Infinite, and the All in all. Then one cannot but see how dissatisfying and disappointing his or her idols, ideologies, and fantasies were. For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

A completely different world emerges when the politics of the kingdom of God becomes also the politics of the earth. Let this book make a step forward in this very direction.

FAITH

Truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to the mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

—Matthew 17:20-21

Introduction

"Why, God, why? is the question often asked in times of trouble." Such a question requires not only an intellectual answer, but an existential one as well, one that deals with the deepest level of our destiny.

This question may be asked by a skeptic who cannot understand why things are the way they are, or by a believer who is starting a prayer as the psalmist did, Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Ps 10:1).

In either case, this question says that we are in trouble. But it also reveals that nonbelievers as well as saints have their own histories. People do not become nonbelievers or saints overnight. They are formed, not born, to be the way they are.

Who among us, at one time or another, has not felt disappointed, frustrated, and even betrayed? Who among us can declare with certainty that he or she is safe from accidents, wars, or terrorism? We are always facing the possibility of trouble. Often it seems as if no one— even in heaven—cares. So some people declare that God, not evil, is dead.

Faith in God?! It is difficult to be a person of faith in today’s world. We are exhausted by a deluge of words, opinions, doctrines, and slogans—an information overload. We are frustrated by the conflicting propaganda launched by the Media and self-interest groups. We are immersed in a noisy world full of distractions and intoxicated by success and power. We are captivated by a religion that is beautifully packaged and presented by people we are supposed to trust and admire, but who sometimes disappoint us by their actions and decisions. We seem to have lost the capacity for deep and simple trust.

Nevertheless, trust and true faith are the answer to our malaise.

If we think about faith, we realize that, besides its theological roots, it is the most practical and down-to-earth aspect of our lives. Without faith, our lives will be almost impossible to sustain. In fact, we rely on faith all the time.

We have faith in the electricity we use, the food we eat, the water we drink, the car we drive, and the bridge we cross. We don’t spend time analyzing the adequacy of all these things. We choose our friends, we deposit our money in the bank, we mail a letter, we go to the doctor, we take the prescribed medicine, because we have faith, and we don’t necessarily think about any of these things. Life becomes unlivable if we don’t have faith. We wouldn’t be sure of ourselves. We wouldn’t be able to dream, change, dare, live, love, even survive.

The same is true at the spiritual level. Faith is to our spiritual life as like breathing to our physical life. We can’t have life if we don’t breathe; we can’t have spiritual life if we don’t have faith.

To be able to say, I believe (Jn 9:38) and I keep the Lord always before me (Ps 16:8), makes all the difference in the world. Faith in God changes our entire perspective regarding our lives and about the world, and creates a whole new reality. Whatever seemed essential from a worldly point of view may become unnecessary and even despicable; whatever was neglected may become the object of ardent pursuit. Faith gives us a new outlook from which we see different realities.

Faith, however, cannot really be separated from hope and love. As St. Paul wrote (1 Cor 13:13), these three work together to lead us to God and to the fulfillment of the divine purpose of our lives. Faith, hope, and love are true and alive when they form a synthesis. The three, together and in intimate connection, are essential for living an abundant life.

Brother Laurence, in The Practice of the Presence of God, says: All things are possible to him who believes; still more to him who hopes; still more to him who loves; and most of all to him who practices all three. While people of every age, religion, and culture have always believed, hoped, and loved, Christians believe, hope, and love because the one who revealed himself as The way, and the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6).

1

Why Is It So Hard to Find God?

The worship of idols not to be named is the beginning and cause and end of every evil

— Wisdom 14:27

Since the beginning of time, the relationship between human beings and God has never been clear, transparent, or easy.

We know that we were created in the image of God (Gen 1:26). We also know that throughout history we have crafted God in our own image. We have crafted many gods. In fact, our gods are as numerous as our cultures, as different as our ways of thinking and our moods. The Encyclopedia of Gods names over 2,500 deities that humankind has worshiped, gods for almost every aspect and need of human life.

Sometimes, however, we declare the death of God, as we have done at various times during the last two centuries. Indeed, the philosophies of Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and others did not leave room for the God we know. For them and their followers, if God was not yet dead, it was the duty of emancipated human beings to kill God.

Today, we are supposedly more sophisticated. As a people, we overwhelmingly tend to believe in God, but we often act as if God does not exist. We go to church, but we ignore Jesus’ teachings to be peaceful and just and to love one another. We can give eloquent speeches on how to behave toward others, but too often we don’t practice what we preach. We talk the talk, but we don’t walk the talk. We pray, but we do what we want to do anyway. This kind of living can perhaps be called practical atheism.

Since we cannot endure emptiness and desolation, we tend to fill the vacuum by replacing God with idols—modern gods such as money, prestige, power, position, social status, pleasure, possessions, and the like. The worship of idols not to be named is the beginning and cause and end of every evil (Wis 14:27). All the gods of the peoples are idols (1 Chr 16:26). By acting like this, believers are often responsible for the birth of atheism. The Second Vatican Council describes it with these words:

Believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion" (Gaudium et Spes, 19).

Unfortunately, many of our institutions have—whether