During the last sixty or seventy years, sadly there has been
a loss in our ability to trust others.
As a young boy living in the 19th ward in the
city of Rochester, I would ride my bike up Thurston Road to Genesee Valley
Park, leave my bike unlocked, play a Little League baseball game, and then get
back on my bike and ride back home to Inglewood Drive. In so doing, l felt completely safe and never
gave it a thought that it would be necessary to lock my bike.
Today, my parents would be accused of serious neglect if I
were not supervised more carefully.
There were six of us, and my mom did not drive.
We see this lack of trust in all aspects of our life.
We find it more and more difficult to trust our government
leaders, our presidential candidates.
There has been a crisis of faith in our Church leaders. The leaders of our banking systems come under
suspicious scrutiny. The increase in the number of divorces are symptomatic of
the loss of trust in family life. It was
once believed that science and technology would make our world a better
place. Then it was education that was
supposed to lead us to respect each other and treat others better than had been
the case. But in some ways they all have
failed us.
Our everyday dealings with others depend upon trust. Unfortunately people betray that trust. We have to teach our children: “Stranger Danger.” At St. Joseph’s School, we have to much more
vigilant about locked doors and the need for video cameras to keep unwelcomed
people from entering the school.
The issue of trust was familiar territory for the prophet
Habakkuk – even his trust in God was shaken.
The prophet Habakkuk lived about 600 years before
Christ. The Jews were in desperate
shape. They were being threatened by
their enemies and falling apart internally.
In the first Scripture reading, Habakkuk cries out to God:
“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not
listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’
but you do not save? Why do you make me
look at injustice?”
Habakkuk had wondered where the absent God was. In the second Scripture reading the apostle
Paul had a radically different experience of trusting in God. Paul had come to know through faith in the
crucified Christ that God was never absent but endured our suffering with
us. In today’s Scripture passage, Paul
is encouraging Timothy to a similar faithfulness. He says: “Stir into flame the gift of God
that you have through the imposition of my hands.”
As we pray over the Gospel today, let’s, you and I, stand in
the shoes of the apostles who said to the Lord:
“Increase our faith.” Let us also
hear the Lord say to us: “If your faith
is the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be
uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
Jesus is telling us:
“Don’t let yourself off the hook!
You have already plenty to accomplish all that I ask. The apostles are suggesting that Jesus needs
to give them more faith. Jesus is
telling them they have plenty of faith already.
So stop making excuses for yourself.
We are all capable of feeling sorry for ourselves as a
parish community, are we not? We do not
have as many people as Sunday as we once did.
Our religious education needs more vibrancy. We need more people to support our
Eucharistic Adoration. Not enough people
fill out their stewardship commitment cards each year. Our CMA goal of $74,000
is too much. That should be the goal of
a larger parish.
In having the faith even the size of a mustard seed is an
incredible God-given gift. The potential
of the faith that we have is enormous.
In fact, nothing is impossible with God.
When our gift of faith is a quality of life, a way of living, and a way
of seeing, we will encounter the Lord in all that we say and do. Our faith that has already been given us has
the beautiful potential of enabling us to see all people as having immense
human dignity made in the image and likeness of God. As we gather at Mass today, you may have come
with family members, but with faith-filled eyes may we see all of us gathered
as sisters and brothers coming together in the name of Jesus.
When we trust in the faith that has been given to us by our
faithful God, to raise $74,000 CMA dollars to help people in need across our
diocese is very, very doable. In fact,
it is a privilege for us to share from our resources to help others in
need. This is not a burden. This is living out our high calling as
disciples of the Lord Jesus.
In a spirituality of stewardship in which everyone commits a
bit of time, talent, and treasure, the potential we have as a parish community
is comparable to uprooting the mulberry tree and planting it in the sea.
The Lord doesn’t hand out any excuses to us. We are
to trust in God’s providence, and we are to share our five barley loaves and
two fish with each other. Be assured
that miracles will happen. We will trust
in one another when we encounter the Lord as we encounter one another. The Lord will increase our faith by making us
more aware of who we are already are as God’s beloved sons and daughters.
As the prophet Habakkuk proclaimed, “Write down this vision
clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily.” As a people of faith, as a people with faith the
size of a mustard seed, our vision for our parish is full of hope and abounding
with the inner peace and joy that comes from the Lord.
Have a blessed day.
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