faith and works

Today's first reading is that famous passage of the Letter of James, "faith without works is dead." I don't know if it is the New American Translation (the revised version) or just thirty+ years of familiarity, but I got a somewhat different take on the message today. There is that part where James challenges the addressee "show me your faith without works"-- and it suddenly became clear that faith is invisible without works, and not just any works, but the works of love that our world needs so much. Faith is "the evidence of things unseen" (according to the Letter to the Hebrews), and what is unseen is especially the love God has for us. We need to believe in God's love as much as we need to believe in God himself.