Little Faith

Nolite ergo solliciti esse, dicentes: Quid manducabimus, aut quid bibemus, aut quo operiemur? Haec omina, inquit, gentes inquirunt... Ac per hoc quid amplius habet a gentili, cujus adhuc infidelitas dum sollicitat animum, hujus vitae curis fatigat. Qui ergo de istis tantum confisus est a Domino, saltem modicam habet fidem: qui autem adhuc de his sollicitus est, infidelis censetur. Unde rara et paucorum est perfecta fides. Et ideo dubitanti adhuc Petro, post Domini jussionem, recte dicitur: Modicae fidei quare dubitasti? Quicunque ergo dubitat in aliquo praeceptorum Dei, vel minus ex eo confidit, quam promisit potens Deus, modicus est fide. Hinc quoque Jacobus: Qui indiget sapientia, postulet eam ex fide, nihil haesitans; quia qui haesitat similis est fluctui maris, qui a vento movetur. Quod si in divinis haesitare Christiano non convenit, in humanis et caducis post promissa quomodo fidelis dubitare poterit? Quid igitur fugis, Christiane? Quanto magis in promissis Dei haesitaveris, tanto minus invenies pro quibus sollicitus desudas. Et si, bonitate Dei etiam dubius acceperis quod sollicite quaesisti, non tua sollicitudo id fecit inefficax, sed Dei largitas, qui solem suum oriri facit super bonos et malos. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Lib IV Cap VI Source: Migne PL 120.311d-312b

Do not therefore be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat, or drink, or wear?' All these things, He said, the Gentiles seek... 1 And because of this the more a man is as the Gentiles, while unfaithfulness yet troubles the soul, he shall be wearied with the cares of life. Therefore he who has confidence in the Lord concerning these things alone, he has little faith, and he who yet is anxious for these things, he is reckoned faithless. Whence perfect faith is rare and of few. And therefore to the yet doubtful Peter, after the exhortation of the Lord, rightly it was said, 'Man of little faith, why did you doubt?' 2 Whoever, then, doubts some commandment of God, or lacks confidence in Him, what Almighty God promises, he is of little faith. Whence James also says: 'He who lacks wisdom, let him ask from faith, doubting in nothing, because he who hesitates is like a wave of the sea tossed about by the wind.' 3 If it is not fitting for a Christian to doubt in Divine things, how after the promises shall it be possible for the faithful man to doubt in human and fallen things? Why, then, do you flee, O Christian? The more you doubt the promises of God, the more you shall find yourself trembling over what you fret over. And if from the goodness of God, you, who are a doubter, receive what you have anxiously sought, it was not your worry that did this, but it was from the largess of God, who makes the sun rise over the good and the wicked. 4 Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 4, Chap 6 1 Mt 6.32 2 Mt 14.31 3 James 1.5 4 Mt 5.45