27th Sunday of the Year--C Cycle
Someone once said,
“Faith is not belief without proof,
but trust without reservation.”
In this regard, I have a story to share:
One year a farming community
suffered from a terrible drought
and their crops were threatened.
In his Sunday homily,
the priest said,
“Nothing will save us
except a special litany for rain.
Go to your homes,
fast every day from sunrise to sunset,
believe that God will answer our prayers,
and come next Sunday for the litany of rain.”
The parish community did what Father said:
they fasted each day of the week
and then returned to church
Sunday morning.
But as soon as the priest saw them,
he was furious.
He said, “Go away!
I will not do the rain litany.
You do not believe.”
“But, Father,” they protested,
“we fasted and believed.”
“Believed?
Then where are your umbrellas?”
Faith is not belief without proof,
but trust without reservation.
Most of us don’t trust God without reservation.
That is why we have to work at trust.
Not just with our minds and hearts
but outwardly, through our actions.
Because no matter
how much we appeal to God
through prayer, fasting, reading the Bible
or by going to Mass on Sunday,
in the end, it is our action
that makes solid our trust in God
and demonstrates our faith.
Today’s readings are all about faith.
And in today’s gospel, Jesus indicates
that if we want to increase our faith
then we are to move to act on our faith
to do all that God commands us to do.
What, then, does God command us to do?
Jesus said: “This I command you,
to love one another.” John 15:17
We love one another and serve God
not just by our thoughts or good intentions,
but through acts of love.
Each of us has been given gifts from God
that may be used to serve God.
Maybe that’s why
St. Paul tells is in our second reading
to “stir into flame
the gift of God bestowed [in you].”2 Tm 1:6
Or, as Mother Teresa once said,
“To keep the lamp burning,
we have to keep putting oil in it.”
And so we are called
to do something with our faith
or surely it will burn out.
But what action does God want us to do?
There are countless possibilities.
Here at St. Thomas More,
we have a multitude of ministries
in which each of us can participate
from feeding homeless teens
in the University District of Seattle,
to being a Eucharistic minister to the sick.
At the end of this Mass
a member of the Knights of Columbus
will speak about what the Knights do
to serve God through action.
We are all called to use the gifts
God gave us to do something for our Lord.
Today, we call that “stewardship”:
the offering of our time,
talent and treasure to serve God.
But to build our trust and faith
in God through action
requires commitment.
Commitment is to make a promise
that we keep.
In the book of Proverbs we read this:
“Commit your work to the LORD,
and your plans will be established.” 16:3
Note that once we commit to do God’s work first,
then our plans are established.
It’s not the other way around
if we want to find the kingdom of heaven
here on earth and after we leave this life.
As you know, we live in an age
when commitment, vows and promises
have lost much of their meaning.
For example,
one in three marriages now end in divorce.
I understand that in some parts of California
one in two marriages fail.
Vows before God made in churches
and temples are broken.
Then, after divorce, many parents
refuse to support their children,
financially and emotionally.
I spoke with a friend yesterday
who told me that her father abandoned
her and her mother
when my friend was an infant
and during her entire childhood and adolescence,
he never sent any financial support.
Companies break promises
to employees and pensions are lost
when mergers with larger corporations take place.
Yet, the owners reap huge profits.
We saw an example of that recently with the Enron scandal.
To keep a commitment
means to resist the temptation
to constantly move on.
Some of us may believe
that by having little or no commitment
or responsibility, we are free.
We may see commitment as a “prison term”
because we find that no job,
no role, no commitment ever turns out
to be as fulfilling as we had hoped.
And so we are tempted to run,
to escape from home, from that job,
from that marriage
that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Sometimes to move on is, in fact, the best answer.
Sometimes it happens that a commitment we make
turns out not to be what we thought it was.
There are many good reasons to revoke a promise.
But to arrive at that decision requires
a lot of prayer, consultation with wise people
and sometimes even with the Church.
Yet, today’s readings challenge us
to think of another possibility,
which is to stay the course of our commitments.
To be faithful to our marriage
and avoid the temptation
to go in search of something new
in the hope that it will make us
feel happier or free.
As any spouse can tell you,
commitment is hard work.
It requires patience and endurance,
especially when we don’t see results
from all we’ve given, all we’ve sacrificed.
Commitment requires courage and trust.
It requires surrender
to the things cannot change or control.
Commitment is an act of faith
where God sees us and loves us
in our promises kept
and our vows unbroken.
And not only that, other people
love those who keep promises
and commitments.
We trust those kind of people.
And want them in our lives.
Today Jesus tells us
that if we want an increase of faith
then we must do something for God—
to commit to doing something
more than prayer, reading Scripture
and going to Mass.
What, then, shall that be?
What is God asking of you and me to do
in our commitment to family, marriage, job,
church and this community
to increase our faith?
What does God want you and me to do
so that our faith is not belief without proof,
but trust…without reservation.