BIBLICAL BASIS

1. Faith Through Action

Putting into practice

The St. Martin-CSA mission states very clearly that we want to actively implement the gospel of service. We believe that faith without action has no meaning, it is dead.During his life Jesus stressed on very many occasions that listening or preaching is not enough, we need to put it into practice.

My dear children,
our love must be not just words or mere talk
but it must be active love, which shows itself in action.
This will be the proof that we belong to the truth (1 John 3, 18-19).

Not the one who says 'Lord, Lord' will enter in the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many in the last day will come and say: Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons and work many miracles in your name? Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers! (Matthew 7, 21-23)

How does it help, my brothers, when someone who has never done a single good act claims to have faith? Will that faith bring salvation? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, 'I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty', without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? In the same way, faith: if good deeds do not go with it, it is quite dead. (James 2,14-16)

What matters is faith that works through love (Galatians 5, 6)

Acting through love

In St. Martin-CSA we wish to be led by love in whatever we do. Our beneficiaries first and foremost need somebody who listens to them, who loves them, who wants to be their friend, despite their problems and vulnerabilities. We do not help a disabled person by giving him an artificial leg or a wheelchair, if we do not show him love. He needs to be accepted and appreciated first, to feel that he is worthy and loved. That is why St. Martin-CSA wants to be an apostolate and not a deliverer of services. We can only attain our mission by using the same love that Jesus showed during his life; the example for us to follow.

Set your mind on the higher gifts. And now I am going to put before you the best way of all.
Though I command languages both human and angelic - if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains - if I am without love, I am nothing.
Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned - if I am without love I am nothing.
Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love never comes to an end.
As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love. (1 Cor.13)

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