Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Homily for 3 Feb 2016

3 Feb 2016

Without faith, God can’t do too much.  The people there in the synagogue not only didn’t have faith in Jesus—they were offended by him.  And so, Jesus could only cure a few sick people—even though he could’ve cured a lot more.  And King David, by calling for a census, was putting more faith in the power of an army than in God.  Ironically, the thing David put faith in was partially destroyed by God.  Without faith—in God, God can’t do too much.

And that’s a hard lesson to learn, for sure.  You know, with all the abuses against human dignity and innocence in the world, it’s hard to have faith in God when our prayers for peace and justice seem to go unanswered.  But to that, God says: “Have faith.” 

When a loved one is ill, and the sickness is getting worse instead of better, we might wonder why God doesn’t hear our prayers.  Or we might think of the parish and the Church in general.  “God, help your people,” we pray.  But, again, God says: “Have faith.  I can’t do anything if you don’t have faith."

And so, today, let’s renew (again) our commitment to be a people of faith . . . because with faith, God can work in us, and through us, to be his presence in the world.

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