Homily for 31 Jul 2015

31 Jul 2015

In the everyday reality of our faith, there’s a bit of a “Catch-22” going on.  Jesus will help us, but first we have to trust him.  But sometimes it is hard to actually trust him unless we see that he’s helping us.  And so, something has to give.  Either Jesus has to help us without us trusting him, or we have to trust him, regardless of what our senses tell us.

Of course, Jesus is already at work for us, loving us, showing us the right path regardless of the amount of faith we have in him.  And so, all that’s left is for us to trust him more and more each day—whether or not we perceive that he is at work in our lives.

If only those people in Jesus’ hometown could’ve had more “raw faith” in him.  If only they could’ve not let their senses and their rationality dictate what they should believe . . . then maybe they could’ve received the blessings Jesus was ready to give them.  But they wouldn’t (or couldn’t) give in.  For them, seeing is believing. 

But Jesus asks us to believe without necessarily seeing.  He asks us to have simple faith in him.  When terrorists destroy lives; when bad things happen to good people; when life seems unfair or unjust, it takes real and simple faith to believe that he is still Lord of all that is good.  It takes faith to believe that he has not abandoned us.

And when we “give in” and just start believing in him, then our eyes of faith will be opened to see what our God is doing.  But that move toward faith is always in our court.  Jesus is always there to help us.  But, first, it’s up to us to trust that he will.