Friday, April 27, 2018

Homily for 27 April 2018


27 April 2018

We’re a people of faith, and yet, it’s not an absolutely blind faith.  We’re also a people of reason.  It’s why Christianity is described as a “reasonable faith.”  We don’t just pull things out of thin air and call it the gospel.

And so, if we ever have doubts about our faith (or if somebody questions why we believe in the first place), we put our noggins in gear and we point to the Apostles.  We have faith because of the Apostles (and with a little help from the Holy Spirit and the whole life of the Church for the past 2,000 years).  Our faith is rooted in the Apostles and what they said.

Saint Paul writes that “God raised [Jesus] from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.  These are now his witnesses before the people.”  “These” being the Apostles and those close to them.

Why do we believe in the Eucharist?  Because the Apostles were there at the Last Supper, and they handed it on to us.  Why do we believe in a loving God?  Because that’s who the Apostles encountered in the flesh-and-blood Jesus.  Why do we believe in life and death?  Because the Apostles were there at the Resurrection, and they’ve handed that great truth onto us.

Our faith is not an absolutely blind faith.  It’s a reasonable faith, one that involves both the heart and the head.  We pray that God will keep us strong in both heart and mind.

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