Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), Vigil
October 5, 2019
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation Jesus wants to have with us this Sunday.
- In the Gospel, the apostles will not ask the Lord for money. They will not ask him for fame. They won’t ask him, like Solomon, for worldly wisdom and prudence. They won’t ask him for health or a long life. They will him for something they discovered was far more important than all of these things combined. They will beg him, “Increase our FAITH!”
- The first reading from the prophet Habucuc will tell us explicitly that “the just man lives by faith” and the apostles wanted to be such men. Their prayer for increased faith shows us their humble recognition that up until then they were not living enough by faith and that they needed the Lord’s help to do so.
- To ask for an increase in faith means to ask for two things, because faith means two things.
- Faith means first AN OBEDIENT TRUST IN GOD.
- We see this type of trust in Abraham, our father in faith, and in Mary, our mother in faith. When God asked seventy-five year-old Abraham to leave everything he had behind and journey to a far-away land, Abraham trusted in God and did so (Gen 12:1 ff). He trusted in God when God promised that he and Sarah in their old age would finally conceive a son (Gen 15:5; Gen 18:1 ff). He trusted in God even when was asking him to sacrifice son Son, Isaac, thirteen years later (Gen 22:1ff). Abraham trusted in the Lord so much that he would do anything God asked.
- Similarly, Mary trusted in God’s words through Gabriel that she would conceive a child without the help of a man and that child would be the Son of God (Gen 1:35). She trusted in God still when Simeon prophesied that her son the Messiah would be a “sign of contradiction” rather than a triumphant king and that her own soul would be pierced (Lk 2:34-35). She trusted when she saw her Son carry the wood of his sacrifice up the same mountain that Isaac ascended and no angel held back the hands of the Roman soldiers nailing him to the Cross. She trusted when she held her son’s bloody body in her arms. She trusted that God would bring great good, in fact our salvation, out of all of this evil.
- Likewise for us to ask God to “increase our faith!” is to ask Him to increase our trust in Him, so that we might confidently obey him in everything, but especially in the most difficult times and circumstances. Each of us knows, in our humble moments, how much we need to grow in the type of trust in God that we see in Abraham and Mary. But when we pray to God to increase our trust in him, how will he respond? The increase will not normally and entirely be an infusion from on high; most often God will answer our prayer by putting us in circumstances that require such real, deep trust in Him and then giving us his help to remain faithful. In each of those circumstances when we trust in Him rather than trust in worldly wisdom or the advice of human gurus, we will grow in faith.
- The second meaning of faith is the CONTENT OF WHAT WE BELIEVE on the basis of our trust in God who reveals those truths. This meaning refers to the various truths of the faith, found in the Creed we profess each Sunday, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and embedded throughout the Church’s liturgy. To ask the Lord “to increase our faith!” means to ask him to give us a greater knowledge and understanding of the truths of faith he reveals to us directly or through the Church he founded and to which he entrusted the Holy Spirit to “guide [her] to all truth” (Jn 16:13).
- This Sunday there is a particular application of this request for greater trust in God and greater understanding of the truths he has revealed. The bishops of our country have designated the first Sunday of October “Respect Life Sunday,” so that Catholics throughout our land may become “just” by living fully our faith with respect to the dignity of all human life. While there are many challenges to the dignity of the human person made in God’s image, the bishops ask us to focus particularly on abortion, which is really the root of almost all of the rest of the problems against that dignity.
- We know by our faith that every fetus is not only an individual life but one made “in the image and likeness of God.” We know that Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (Mk 9:37). We know, in him, that every human life is precious, that it is unique, with a soul infused directly by God. Jesus says that everything we do — or fail to do — for such a child, he takes personally: “Amen, amen, I say to you, as often as you did it to ONE OF THE LEAST OF MY BROTHERS, you did it to me… As often as you failed to do it to ONE OF THESE LEAST ONES, you failed to do it to me.” (Mt 25:30-44).
- Today, the Church wants us to ask the Lord for an increase in faith with relation to the dignity of the unborn child made in God’s image (Gen 1:26). Like Abraham and Mary, we’re called to live by our faith in God, even and especially when it is in contrast with the prevailing winds of the world. Our trust in God should always lead to fortitude to act for him, confident that he will always be with us. This is what St. Paul will describe in Sunday’s second reading: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord… but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard… in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” He also prays that God may “stir into a flame” this gift of faith.
- As we come on Sunday to receive Jesus’ body and blood in this Mass, we will ask him to “increase our faith!” and to help us to “live by it” in all its practical applications. We profess that under the appearances of tiny host we know that Jesus is present in his body, blood, soul and divinity. This strengthens us to go out and recognize Jesus in his image and likeness in the unborn. In response to the culture of destruction, violence, strife and discord all around us, we ask the Lord to fortify our love for him and neighbor, however young, small and vulnerable. We ask him to stir into a flame this gift of faith and give us the courage to live by it now and always!
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