OT II [A]: Is 49:3, 5-6; I Cor 1:1-3; Jn 1:29-34 

The human race was created to live in communion with God, in whom alone we find happiness. This is our fundamental purpose in life - it's the reason that nothing else in the world satisfies our deepest desires. 

Not money, because money runs out.

Not pleasure, because pleasure wears off.

Not power, because power corrupts.

Our hearts were made for more than all those things. They were made to love and be loved with an eternal love, and that can only come from God.

But Adam and Eve walked out on God, and the human race became lost and fell under the power of the devil. We couldn't save ourselves, so Jesus came to rescue us. As a true man and true God, he was able to end  mankind's rebellion against God and reestablish our communion with God. It is hard to understand, but it's true.

There once was a boy who spent many hours building a model sailboat. When he put it in the local river, however, it moved away from him quickly. He chased it along the bank, but the strong wind and current carried the boat away. The heartbroken boy knew how hard he would have to work to build another sailboat. Downriver, a man found the beautiful boat, took it to town, and sold it to a toy store. Later, the boy was walking through town and noticed the boat in the store window. He explained the situation, but the shopkeeper didn't believe him and said that the only way to get the boat back was to buy it. The boy wanted it back so much that he did exactly that.

Then he looked at the boat and said, "Little boat, now you're twice mine: I made you and I bought you."

That's what God did for us - we are twice his. He created us and bought us back when we were lost, but instead of paying cash, he paid with his blood - the blood of the Lamb of God.

John the Baptist's favorite title for Jesus is "the Lamb of God." It also became one of John the Evangelist’s favorite titles. He uses it here in his Gospel, and then he used it again, twenty-nine times, in the Book of Revelation. Rev. 5:6 says: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.” (that banner hanging here at the back signifies the risen lamb in heaven).

This lamb figure brings together three images that would have been familiar to the Jews of those times.

By calling Christ the "Lamb of God," St John is telling us that those ancient images are fulfilled in Jesus. 

The first image: In the Old Covenant, God required the Jews to sacrifice a lamb twice a day to expiate the sins of the people (cf. Exodus 29:39). So the lamb symbolized the price to be paid for sin.

The second image: The primary holy day of the Jews was (and remains) the Passover. In the Passover ceremony each family sacrifices and eats a lamb to recall their liberation from Egypt in the days of Moses. On that night, God allowed the death of all the firstborn children and animals of the Egyptians, but spared those of the Hebrews. In order to indicate which households the angel of death was to skip over, God commanded the Hebrews to kill a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. Thus the Passover lamb signified God's merciful and saving love.

The third image: Finally, a lamb going silently and docilely to be slaughtered is one of the images used to describe the coming Messiah. He was going to take Israel's sins upon himself and wipe them away through his suffering obedience.

And so, by calling Jesus the "Lamb of God," John reminds us that all of these Old Testament symbols had been pointing towards Christ - the true Savior.

Christ is our King and our Leader. And so, to be his loyal subjects and followers, we too should bravely become Lambs of God - sacrificial offerings on the altar of our own crosses.

This self-sacrificial, self-forgetful love is so central to our faith that the Church reminds us of it in every Mass, when we pray, "Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us."

And when we receive Holy Communion, we are receiving the Lamb of God, partaking of the saving Lamb, just as the Jews of the Old Covenant partook of the Passover Lamb.

And when we receive the Lamb of God with a lively faith, he strengthens us to follow his example.

Every day of our lives in this fallen world is filled with struggles and hardships, big and little, that can become instruments of salvation.

By offering himself on the cross, Jesus reconciled sinners to God. By offering ourselves on our crosses, we can do the same thing.

When we offer our daily sufferings to God in prayer, they become channels of grace for the conversion and sanctification of the world. Pope Benedict XVI invited all Catholics to renew this ancient devotion of offering up our sufferings in union with Christ's.

Many people in the world don't pray, don't believe, don't confess their sins, are continuing in their rebellion against God... We can be a bridge between them and God by offering up our sufferings through prayer, by being Lambs with the Lamb.

Today, when we receive the Lamb of God, let's do so from the depths of our hearts, filled with gratitude for his love and with a deep yearning to love him in return.

New Year 2020.

Today we celebrate the oldest of all Marian feasts in our liturgy, most appropriate for new beginnings, with new resolutions, and renewed hopes. Today’s Feast of Mary, the Mother of God is a very appropriate way to begin a new year. This celebration reminds us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is also our Heavenly Mother.  Hence, our ideal motto for the New Year 2020 should be “To Jesus through Mary!”

In today's Gospel Mary teaches us one of the most important virtues of all: wisdom. St Luke tells us how Mary responded to the wonderful things that God was doing in and around her: "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." Just as Mary’s womb was open to receiving God's living Word at the moment of Christ's Incarnation, so her heart was constantly open to receiving God's ongoing words and messages as He continued to speak through the events of her life.

This capacity and habit of reflecting in our heart on God's action in our lives is both a sign and a source of wisdom. That will increase our trust and faith in Him.

We do not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future in his hands. Like the Blessed Mother, let us be more trusting in God’s providence and love. Trusting in God everyday will deliver greater things in our lives than trusting in our own strength.

A little boy and his father visited the country store, and upon leaving the store, the owner of the store offered the little boy some free Sweets... “Get a hand full of Sweets", the merchant said to the boy. The boy
just stood there looking up at his father. The owner repeated himself:- “Son get a hand full of Sweets... it’s free.” Again the boy did not move, continuing to look up in the face of his father. Finally the father reached into the candy jar and got a hand full of Sweets and gave it to his son.
As they walked back home, the father stopped and asked his son why he did not grab a hand full of the free candy. The boy with a big smile on his face looked into the face of his father and said:- “Because I know that your HAND is BIGGER than mine.”
So, whatever our needs are for 2020, please place them in the FATHER'S HAND IN HEAVEN, because HIS HAND is BIGGER THAN OURS. And so make sure we receive everything in the new year from Our Father’s hands. That will make us also rich in God’s eyes.

Some time ago someone asked Bill Gates. Is there any person richer than you?

Bill Gates replied, “Yes, there is a person who is richer than me.” He then narrated a story. “It was during the time when I wasn’t rich. I was at New York Airport when I saw a newspaper vendor. I wanted to buy one newspaper but found that I don’t have enough change. I told him of not having the change.

The vendor said, “I am giving you this for free. On his insistence I took the newspaper. I landed the same airport and again I was short of change for a newspaper. The vendor offered me the newspaper again. I refused and said that I can’t take it for I don’t have a change today too. He said, you can take it, I am sharing this from my profit.”

After 19 years I became famous and known by people. I began searching for him and after about 1½ months I found him. I asked him, “Do you know me?” He said, “Yes you are Bill Gates.” I asked him again, “Do you remember once you gave me a newspaper for free.” The vendor said, “Yes, I remember. I gave you twice.”

I said, “I want to repay the help you had offered me that time.” The vendor said, Sir, don’t you think that by doing so you won’t be able to match my help?” I asked, “Why?”

He said, “I helped you when I was a poor newspaper vendor and you are trying to help me now when you have become the richest man in the world. How can your help match mine?”

That day I realized that the newspaper vendor is richer than me. People need to understand that the truly rich are those who possess rich heart rather than lots of money.

It is very important to have a rich heart to help others. The psalmist prayed, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Let it be our resolution and prayer for the New Year: Create in me a clean heart O God.  Wish you all a very Happy New Year 2020.

The Holy Family

A:Sir 3:2-6, 12-14; Col 3:12-21;   Mt 2:13-15, 19-23

God created us in his own image and likeness. To be created in the image of God is to be created for family life. God could not have exalted the family more than he did by joining one. Just as God is a Trinity, a communion of three Persons sharing the divine nature, we also are created to find fulfillment in community, in the intricate network of relationships that makes each one of us dependent on others, and others dependent on us.

Christmas break gives us a great image of what the family can be: Everyone together, in the glow of the birth of Jesus, giving and receiving gifts with each other.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph is put before us today by the Church as a model for our families to imitate. From His birth to the beginning of His public life, Jesus chose to experience all the aspects of human life. If Jesus was to help men, he must know what were men’s lives. He did not come to a protected life, but he came to the life that any ordinary man must live.  He experienced the hardships of the people who are forced to leave their home and kinsmen; he experienced the problems of an ordinary workman, while working as a carpenter in Nazareth; and He experienced the pangs of death when his foster father died. 

In our eagerness and anxiety to provide the best for our children some parents do not give them any chance to experience the world in which they live. we try to provide them the best education, so they ignore the illiteracy around. We struggle to provide them the best food, so they are unaware of the poverty that exists around them. We want to give them the best of everything, so they do not see the suffering in the world. But in our culture, children disappear into their own worlds through devices and individual pastimes, ignoring their parents.

We are human beings, our family life doesn't come ready- made. An old saying goes like this: Everyone's greatest blessing is also their greatest curse. At least sometimes, most of us probably feel that way about family life. Somehow, our greatest joys and our greatest sufferings are both linked up with family relationships.

Our families are not just centers of great peace; they are sources of enormous pain. There are misunderstandings, failings, unkindness and unforgiveness, slights small and large. Families smother us or disappoint us.

The fact that family life is tough, in fact, is paradoxically why that it is so beneficial — our families force us out of our narcissistic focus on ourselves, they solve the twin problems of pride and low self-esteem, and they give us an almost unavoidable way to live out the commandment to serve others before ourselves. This hurts us, then saves us.

The perfect family is not pre-fabricated somewhere and available for purchase on a wedding register. Family life is a task, a calling we have received from God.

Today’s first reading, from the book of Sirach summarizes the relationship of father, mother and children. Sirach reminds children of their duty to honour their parents – even when it becomes difficult. He also mentions the two-fold reward which the Bible promises to those who honour their father and mother - “riches” and “long life”. These are two things we all wish for. 

 The first thing we can do to live a healthy Christian family life is to respect family roles. Just as the natural structure of a tree includes roots, trunk, and branches, so the natural structure of the family includes dad, mom, and children. They all go together and they all need each other in order to bear the fruit of maturity, wisdom, and happiness.

In his book “My Father, My Son,” Dr. Lee Salk describes a moving interview with Mark Chapman, the convicted slayer of Beatle John Lennon. At one point in the interview, Chapman says: “I don’t think I ever hugged my father. He never told me he loved me…I needed emotional love and support. I never got that.” Chapman’s description of how he would treat a son if he had one is especially tragic, because he will probably never get out of prison and have a family of his own. He says: “I would hug my son and kiss him…and just let him know…he could trust me and come to me…and (I would) tell him that I loved him.” Dr. Salk ends his book with this advice to fathers and sons. It applies equally well to mothers and daughters. “Don’t be afraid of your emotions, of telling your father or your son that you love him and that you care. Don’t be afraid to hug and kiss him. “Don’t wait until the deathbed to realize what you’ve missed.”

The Holy Family literally centered their life around Jesus. Let’s put Jesus at the center of our families too. St. Paul says in the Second Reading “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly … singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Besides going to Mass together let’s read scripture together and pray the Rosary every night to make Jesus a part of daily life.

Christmas Morning Mass:  2019

Eight-year-old Benny died of AIDS in 1987. CBS made a movie drama about the trauma called Moving Toward the Light. As Benny lies dying in his mother’s arms, he asks, “What will it be like?” His mother whispers softly in his ear, “You will see a light, Benny, far away — a beautiful, shining light at the end of a long tunnel. And your spirit will lift you out of your body and start to travel toward the light. And as you go, a veil will be lifted from your eyes, and suddenly, you will see everything … but most of all, you will feel a tremendous sense of love.” “Will it take long?” Benny asks. “No,” his mother answers, “not long at all. Like the twinkling of an eye.” Many families have been devastated by AIDS. Amid the darkness and despair an eight-year-old boy and his mother witnessed to the sustaining power of the light of God’s presence. They have touched the lives of a multitude of people. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. — 1 John 1:5

The gospel we just read tells us that the “Word became Flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

Pope Benedict once asked, “What did Jesus actually bring? We still have wars. We still get sick. People still suffer. We still die. What did Jesus bring?”

His answer? “Jesus brings us God.”

This is what we celebrate at Christmas. Jesus brings us God. 

The cause of Christian joy isn’t presents. The cause of Christian joy isn’t a trouble-free life. The cause of Christian joy is Jesus Christ, God-With-Us.

Christ is still present in the world today. In a unique way, he’s present in mystery in the sacraments. When we receive the Eucharist, we receive him. If we’re ready to receive him, after a good confession, he’s truly present in our souls. And he wants us to make him present to others.

We need to experience Jesus as Emmanuel. The real meaning of Christmas actually is Emmanuel, God-with-us – God coming down to us; God seeking us out; God coming alongside us; God revealing Himself to us; God bringing us forgiveness, healing, comfort, moral strength, and guidance — God dwelling within us. Each one of us has, deep down in our soul, an incredible hunger: a hunger for purpose and meaning; a hunger to feel and celebrate the redeeming, forgiving, sustaining love of God; a hunger to be in the presence of God. Christmas is special because it reminds us concretely that God is, indeed, with us. In every circumstance of life, even when we are frightened or lonely or in sorrow, God is with us. As we celebrate the Incarnation of the Word of God this Christmas, we might make a conscious effort both to remember that Jesus is always with us in our hearts and in the Eucharist and to share our joy in His presence with others.

Years ago a young man was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He had a stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at the lunch counter, a woman came out of the ladies’ rest room carrying a tiny baby. She walked up to this man and asked, “Would you hold my baby for me, I left my purse in the rest room.” He did. But as the woman neared the front door of the bus station, she darted out into the crowded street and was immediately lost in the crowd. This guy couldn’t believe his eyes. He rushed to the door to call the woman but couldn’t see her anywhere. Now what should he do? Put the baby down and run? When calmness finally settled in, he went to the Traveler’s Aid booth and together with the local Police, they soon found the real mother. You see, the woman who’d left him holding the baby wasn’t the baby’s real mother. She’d taken the child. Maybe it was to satisfy some motherly urge to hold a child or something else. No one really knows. But we do know that this man, breathed a sigh of relief when the real mother was found. After all, what was he going to do with a baby? In a way, each of us, is in the same sort of situation as this young man. Every Christmas God Himself walks up to us and asks, “Would you hold My Baby for Me, please?” And then thrusts the Christ Child into our arms.  And we’re left with the question, “What are we going to do with this Baby?” Take him with us or leave him back in the church and go home and celebrate Christmas? Don’t we all feel comfortable with Jesus in a manger? And not coming with us and becoming part of our lives? If we take him with us we need to remember to feed him, nurture him daily and make him grow in our life through prayer and sacraments. Let’s make the choice now, take him with us or leave him right here and come and see him only on Sundays?

Christmas Vigil-2019

The season of Advent is past, and the period of anticipation is complete. Now it is time to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, which occurred some 2,000 years ago.  Looking through the telescope of Christ’s Resurrection, the New Testament authors, as well as the Fathers of the Church, reexamined foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, in the writings of the prophets, and they identified Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.

Why did God want to become a human being?

Ideas affect our actions. The idea that we have of another person affects how we relate to that person. If someone gives me a million dollars, I am going to think he is a great guy, and I will treat him accordingly.

If I find out that a friend has been stealing from my bank account, I am going to think he is a liar and a back-stabber, and my dealings with him will turn cold. Our idea of someone affects how we interact with them. What is our idea of God? What do we think God is like?

As the Catechism teaches us, God is the origin and end of all things, and "man was created to live in communion with God, in whom he finds happiness" (#45). Communion with God, a relationship with God, this is what we were created for. But the quality of that relationship depends on what we think this God is like. Someone who doesn't believe in God at all will have no relationship with him. Someone who thinks God is an angry, intolerant tyrant will have a fearful, unstable relationship with him. Someone who thinks God is a distant and impersonal force will have a cold, distant relationship with God.

God became man on Christmas Night 2000 years ago because he wanted to correct our mistaken ideas about what he's like. He wants us to have the right idea about him, so that we can live in a right relationship with him. To have a relationship with him we need to accept and welcome him in our life.

We need to reserve a room for Jesus in our heart. Christmas asks us a tough question. Do we close the doors of our hearts to Jesus looking for a place to be reborn in our lives? There is no point in being sentimental about the doors slammed by the folks in Bethlehem, if there is no room in our own hearts for the same Jesus coming in the form of the needy. We need to reverence each human life, and to treat others respectfully as the living residences of the incarnate God. To neglect the old, to be contemptuous of the poor or to have no thought for the unemployed and the lonely, is to ignore those individuals with whom Christ has so closely identified Himself. Hence, we all need to examine ourselves daily on the doors we close to Jesus.

 We need to experience Jesus as Emmanuel: The real meaning of Christmas actually is Emmanuel, God-with-us – God coming down to us; God seeking us out; God coming alongside us; God revealing Himself to us; God bringing us forgiveness, healing, comfort, moral strength, and guidance — God dwelling within us. Each one of us has, deep down in our soul, an incredible hunger: a hunger for purpose and meaning; a hunger to feel and celebrate the redeeming, forgiving, sustaining love of God; a hunger to be in the presence of God. Christmas is special because it reminds us concretely that God is, indeed, with us. In every circumstance of life, even when we are frightened or lonely or in sorrow, God is with us. As we celebrate the Incarnation of the Word of God this Christmas, we might make a conscious effort both to remember that Jesus is always with us in our hearts and in the Eucharist and to share our joy in His presence with others.

Years ago a young man was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He had a stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at the lunch counter, a woman came out of the ladies’ rest room carrying a tiny baby. She walked up to this man and asked, “Would you hold my baby for me, I left my purse in the rest room.” He did. But as the woman neared the front door of the bus station, she darted out into the crowded street and was immediately lost in the crowd. This guy couldn’t believe his eyes. He rushed to the door to call the woman but couldn’t see her anywhere. Now what should he do? Put the baby down and run? When calmness finally settled in, he went to the Traveler’s Aid booth and together with the local Police, they soon found the real mother. You see, the woman who’d left him holding the baby wasn’t the baby’s real mother. She’d taken the child. Maybe it was to satisfy some motherly urge to hold a child or something else. No one really knows. But we do know that this man, breathed a sigh of relief when the real mother was found. After all, what was he going to do with a baby? In a way, each of us, is in the same sort of situation as this young man. Every Christmas God Himself walks up to us and asks, “Would you hold My Baby for Me, please?” And then thrusts the Christ Child into our arms.  And we’re left with the question, “What are we going to do with this Baby?” Take him with us or leave him back in the church and go home and celebrate Christmas? Don’t we all feel comfortable with Jesus in a manger? And not coming with us and becoming part of our lives? If we take him with us we need to remember to feed him, nurture him daily and make him grow in our life through prayer and sacraments. Let’s make the choice now, take him with us or leave him right here and come and see him only on Sundays?

OT XXVIII [C]: II Kgs 5:14-17; II Tm 2:8-13; Lk 17:11-19

Winston Churchill loved to tell the story of the little boy who fell off a pier into deep ocean water. An older sailor, heedless of the great danger to himself, dove into the stormy water, struggled with the boy, and finally, exhausted, brought him to safety. Two days later the boy’s mother came with him to the same pier, seeking the sailor who rescued her son. Finding him, she asked, “You dove into the ocean to bring my boy out?” “I did,” he replied. The mother angrily demanded, “Then where’s his hat?” In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the story of nine ungrateful lepers.

Normally the Jews and the Samaritans did not mix together, yet this group of lepers consisted of both Jews and a Samaritan. Their misery brought them together. Often it is misery that helps us shed their pride and come down to the level of others. Out of those ten, the one who was a foreigner, was the only one who returned and thanked Jesus. The Old Testament prescribed that when a Jewish leper was healed, he had to go to the local priest to confirm that he was now clean and permitted to mix among the general public. For the Samaritan, he had to go to his own priest near Mount Gerizim. This demand of Jesus required a greater act of obedience because of the long travelling involved. While the demand was greater upon the Samaritan, he was the only one to show gratitude for the gift of healing that he received.

Gratefulness is such an important virtue, that God put it at the very center of Christian worship: the celebration of the Eucharist. Now, in creating and redeeming us, God has done us a favor much bigger than anything we could ever do for him. As the responsorial psalm said: The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.

Fr. Roger Landry beautifully explains the connection between the Holy Mass and Jesus’ thanksgiving. Every Mass we’re called to grow in this spirit of thanksgiving, because the Eucharist is Jesus’ own prayer of Thanksgiving to the Father. The Greek word from which we derive the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” During the Mass, the priest says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” Everyone responds, “It is right and just.” And then the priest replies with a saying of great theological depth: “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, Holy Father, almighty and eternal God.” Before Jesus said the words of consecration on the night he would be betrayed, on the vigil of his crucifixion, he took bread and, as we will hear anew today, “gave thanks.” He gave thanks because he was constantly thanking the Father. He gave thanks because he knew that the Father would bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil of all time which would happen to him after the Mass was done. He gave thanks because it would be through his passion, death and resurrection, that Jesus would institute the means by which we would be able to enter into his own relationship with the Father. The Mass is the school in which we participate in Jesus’ own thanksgiving, the thanksgiving the Church makes continuously from the rising of the sun to its setting.

St. Paul tells us to give thanks to God in all circumstances. How do we give thanks in all circumstances? Here are two practical tips.

At the end of each day, dedicate a few minutes to reviewing the gifts God has given us, and thanking him for them. This keeps our hearts alive with gratitude.

And secondly, it’s vital to form the habit of thanking God throughout the day. When something good happens, say “Thank you Jesus for your friendship and your love.” When something unpleasant happens, still say “Thank you Jesus, for your friendship and your love.”

Daniel Defoe gave us some good advice through his fictitious character Robinson Crusoe. The first thing that Crusoe did when he found himself on a deserted island was to make out a list. On one side of the list he wrote down all his problems. On the other side of the list he wrote down all of his blessings. On one side he wrote: I do not have any clothes. On the other side he wrote: But it’s warm and I don’t really need any. On one side he wrote: All of the provisions were lost. On the other side he wrote: But there’s plenty of fresh fruit and water on the island. And on down the list he went. In this fashion he discovered that for every negative aspect about his situation, there was a positive aspect, something to be thankful for. It is easy to find ourselves on an island of despair. Perhaps it is time that we sit down and take an inventory of our blessings.”

Besides thanking God say sincere thanks to someone who really helped you in your life, your spouse or your parents; or it could be a note to a coworker or a friend who’s been there for you. Gratitude makes us more like God, and opens our hearts to a deeper relationship with him. It’s something we won’t regret. 

In gratefulness to the God of Israel, Naaman carried a load of soil with him from Israel so that he could stand in that soil and worship the God of Israel everyday to thank Him for healing him of his leprosy.  Instead of carrying the soil from Calvary we come and stand at the foot of the cross in spirit and join that sacrifice of Jesus every Sunday. Let’s offer everything him of ours for the wonderful gift of salvation he gave us.

Today, and every Sunday, let's be like the grateful Samaritan: let's do it with all our hearts.

OT XXVII [C] Hb 1:2-3; 2:2-4; II Tm 1:6-8, 13-14; Lk 17:5-10

Many years ago, a famous shoe company sent one of its salespeople to a faraway country to start a business.  After a few months he sent back the message: “I am coming home. Nobody wears shoes here.”  The same company sent another salesperson to the same backward area.  After a few months she sent this message to the home office: “Send more order forms! Nobody wears shoes here! Hence, I can sell more shoes.”  The second salesperson saw the opportunity in her situation – not the difficulty.  She succeeded because she had faith in her product, faith in the people and faith in her ability to canvass customers.   Today’s readings tell us that if we have a little Faith – even the smallest amount – in God’s power, which He is glad to share with us, then we’re on the right track.

All three readings of today speak a lot about “Faith” and how it works in our lives. The first reading defines Faith as trust and steadfast expectation in the face of suffering and delay. The second reading explains why Faith gives us a new way of looking at things and a new way of living.  Paul reminds Timothy, and us that Faith is our acceptance of Jesus as the fulfillment of the promises of God.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his Apostles that Faith allows us to share in God’s power, and, hence, even in small quantities, deep Faith enables Him to work miracles in our lives and in the lives of others. It is Faith which makes one just, putting him into right relation with God and neighbor. While the Apostles ask for an increase in the quantity of their Faith, Jesus reminds them, and us, that the quality of their faith is more important. He used the parables of the mustard seed and the good servant to help them understand the need for strong Faith.  For Faith to be effective, it must be linked with trust, loving obedience and total commitment — an active submission to God and a willingness to do whatever He commands, even in tough times. Jesus reminds them that it is not the greatness of their Faith, but rather the greatness of God’s power working through them that will move mountains (Mt 17:20; Mk 11:23).   A mustard seed is very tiny; there is a chance of losing it if it is not handled carefully. Likewise, Faith: if it is not handled carefully there is a chance of losing it. We have to feed Faith.

At the end of World War II, it is reported, the Allied soldiers were searching farmhouses for snipers. In one abandoned house, which was almost a heap of rubble, they had to use their flashlights to get to the basement. On the crumbling wall, they spotted a Star of David.  It had obviously been scratched by a victim of the Jewish Holocaust. And beneath it was the following message in clear but rough lettering: “I believe in the sun -even when it does not shine.  I believe in love – even when it is not shown. I believe in God – even when He does not speak.” -Like the Holocaust victim who had inscribed those uplifting words on the basement wall, Mother Teresa believed in the sun-even when it did not shine. She believed in love -even when it was not shown. And she believed in God -even when God did not speak. In her secret and personal letters Mother Teresa revealed that for almost 50 years, she went through what is best described as “the dark night of the soul,” driving her to doubt the existence of Heaven and even God. Said a Jesuit priest, Fr. James Martin, “I have never read a saint’s life where the saint has had such an intense spiritual darkness. No one knew she was that tormented.” Like all of us, Mother Teresa was but human. And it is only natural that we, like her, will experience times of doubt, loneliness, dryness and even denial. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!”

We need to grow in Faith by using the means Christ has given us in His Church.  We must cultivate our Faith through prayer, Bible study, and leading a well-disciplined spiritual life. Faith is the gift of God—so we must pray that God will increase our Faith. Time spent with God in prayer is fundamental to the development of Faith.  We must pray for a Faith that is strong enough to overcome the difficulties and crises we face daily.  In addition, association with people of Faith builds Faith.  Hence, our participation in the Holy Mass (“the mystery of Faith”), and the life of the Church is important.   Sacred Scriptures inform and correct our Faith. Without the guidance of the Scriptures, our Faith tends to be weak.    We grow in Faith as we act in Faith. Every gift of God is strengthened by the exercise of it. Someone has said, “Charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.”

Let’s place the mustard seed of our faith in the hand of God and ask Him to help us move mountains of unforgiveness and disbelief in God, and thereby transform our lives for the glory of God.