Homily for the Week of August 11, 2013

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2013 Wisdom 18:6-9 Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22 Hebrew 11:1-2, 8-19 or 11:1-2, 8-12 Luke 12:32-48 or 12:35-40 The first person to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope was a French acrobat by the name of Charles Blondin. He actually crossed several times. He never used a harness and yet he walked backwards, on stilts, and blindfolded. But while spectators watched from land perhaps the most courageous thing that happened on the wire was that Harry Colcold, his manager, rode across the falls on Blondin’s shoulders. Colcold had complete faith in Blondin. That is what call faith or trust. Our Bible readings this weekend all refer to faith or trust in God in one way or other. We have been told by the author of Hebrews that faith is the realization of what is hope for and the evidence of things not seen. Everyone of us live by faith. Most times we do not realize it. We have faith that our doctors and medical staff are competent. That is why we let them prescribe medicines and operate on us. Every time a person gets on a plane we put our faith in the pilot whom we have never met. Without faith life would be difficult. We would not be able to trust anyone. Life without faith is a life of emptiness. However, many persons do not accept faith as part of who they are. Many people are proud of their “rationality” and open-mindedness, convinced that faith is not reasonable and that faith is an illusion. Without faith, life is reduced to isolated events, without real meaning and without hope. Without faith we live our life on things that come and go. Likewise faith on a spiritual level has to do with confidence and trust in a person named Jesus. During his life Jesus talked about faith many, many times. Once he told his closest friends that they had little faith. Nearly ever time that Jesus healed someone, Jesus would say: Go your way; your faith has made you well. The word Faith has several meanings. As I already mentioned it can mean trust or have faith in someone. It can also mean the religion to which a person belongs such as the Catholic faith or Protestant faith or Jewish faith. In that sense it means the various things in which we believe or accept as we will do in short time when we pray together our PROFESSION OF FAITH known as the Apostles Creed. Today St. Luke presents Jesus instructing His disciples on being prepared for their future. Jesus always taught that what we do today prepares us for our future. And that future, Jesus tells us, is to live happily in what he called everlasting life. How do we know if we have faith? It is plain and simple: we have faith if we trust the word of someone else. When we accept what someone says on faith, we believe in what the other person is telling us even if we have not personally witnessed or seen it. Faith means to trust. Having faith means being able to live with unanswered questions -- sometimes tough questions. Faith gives us the courage to endure and survive without having the answers. To Catholics, faith isn't something we find. Rather it is a gift from God. Faith in God is very much like the faith and trust that grows between two persons who start trusting each other, gradually form a relationship with each other, trust each other, love each other and then make this lifetime relationship in marriage. God offers faith freely to anyone and everyone, BUT IT MUST BE FREELY RECEIVED AS WELL. No one can be forced to have or to accept faith. And each person responds differently to his or her gift of faith - at different times, at different levels and in different ways. Some people reject the gift of faith, some ignore it, Others cherish their faith deeply. Faith is taking a step into the unknown and trusting God to work things out. Faith demands a way of thinking that is completely opposite to the expectations of people of the computer age. Faith says that we cannot find the answers ourselves. The faith that we read about in the Bible today is not the type of faith which we have in doctors and lawyers and bankers. Rather, it is a radical all including faith. It is a gift from God by which we trust in a God we have not seen and do not see; a faith in Jesus Christ who we have not seen. This was the faith that inspired Abraham in our first reading today. It is the faith that in which we believe that Jesus says who he says he is, and that you and I are able to place our trust in his words and his way of life. It is a faith in which we believe that our life is not the end of all things but the beginning of another life which we call everlasting. Let the gift of this faith move us today. Let it also help us to place our trust in the things that are today only a hope. There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. Since last October many of you have reflected on your faith and may have opened the door of faith to others. In October is when Catholics throughout the world began the YEAR OF FAITH which will end on November 24th. If perhaps some of you may have completely missed the YEAR OF FAITH, you still have 19 weeks before the end of November to rediscover your faith and become a joyful witness in your world, family, workplace as a person who believes in Jesus Christ. Remind yourself that those who believe are never alone. Living by faith, then, involves living in the moment while being rooted in the past and looking to the future. As each day we try to live our lives for God, we say to God, I believe. Help my unbelief.