Thursday, October 15, 2015

Homily for 15 Oct 2015

15 Oct 2015

Faith is hard.  It’s hard to live our faith out in the world.  But that’s not the kind of living faith Jesus and St Paul are talking about today.  Here they’re just talking about our basic faith in God—our basic trust in God.  And that kind of faith is hard.

This past weekend, Jesus mentioned how hard it was for a rich person to enter the kingdom; it’s hard for a person to follow the “narrow way” if they’re loaded down with things.  And we get that.  I mean, just try to walk through a regular door in your house carrying a bunch of luggage.  It’s hard.

And faith is hard because having real faith and trust in God is the “narrow way.”  And it’s hard because we can be loaded down with the sense that simple faith isn’t enough—that I need to prove myself to God; that I need to work my way into God’s heart.  Faith is hard—the “narrow way” is hard—because it makes us put down our baggage and say: “Ok, God, your mercy and love is enough.”

Faith is hard because it requires us to just trust God—without worrying about if there’s anything else I can do to secure his love and affection.  The “narrow way” of faith is the way of simple trust and adoration of God for who he is: a God of mercy and goodness.

And faith is the “key” Jesus speaks of today.  Simple faith opens the door to knowledge of God.  Ironically, though, we don’t turn that key—God does.  That’s faith, that’s the narrow way: to “let go and let God.”  

No comments:

Post a Comment