Weekly HOMILY for August 17, 2008: In What Does Faith Consist?

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Our Lady of Grace
August 17, 2008


Focus: In what does faith consist?
Function: To assist members of the assembly in recognizing the elements of their own faith and what needs to be done to “activate” them
Form: Problem/Solution

In What Does Faith Consist?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Everyday Faith Challenges

We all face challenges to our faith each day. We have them today and if not, they will be there tomorrow, of this we can be sure.

A single parent asleep in a downstairs bedroom with her three children sleeping on the second floor is killed by a truck that crashes into their home.

A middle-age woman learns that she has breast cancer.

A father of four is laid off from work and the family has fallen behind in their mortgage payments.

Tragic deaths, health challenges, difficult financial situations plague us all.

Such incidents raise the question of what is our faith made up of? How can we better understand faith so it can help us meet the everyday challenges of life?


Image of Transmitter and Receiver

“The Constitution on Revelation” of the Second Vatican Council states that: “The obedience of faith must be given to God as he reveals himself.”

It would seem then, that faith consists first in God’s revealing himself in different ways at different times and second, that faith consists in our obedience to that revealing God.

Perhaps an image would help.

Think of God as the transmitter, the divine broadcasting station, emitting a wave, a grace, or energy into the environment.

Think of yourself as the receiver, the radio or TV that gets this signal and digests it into sound and a visual picture.


God As Transmitter

Let us talk about the transmission end of the image first.

God was revealing himself in Old Testament times where he was asking the people he has chosen for a fundamental response of faith. You have folks like Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and Aaron.

Fast forward (Make zipping sound) to a different time and a different place where this faith is called to be renewed and to be increased. God calls his people to respond to the revelation of his Son Jesus.

Jesus, you will recall, expressly asks for it from his disciples at the Last Supper when he says: “Believe in God, believe also in me.”

So the first thing that faith consists in is a transmitter, a God who is sending out a signal at different times and in different places to those whom he has chosen.


You As Receiver

The second thing that faith consists in is the receiver, you or I who take in this “signal” and have it make a difference in our own life.

To be such a receiver we must look at our intellect – that is, our ability to think and reason – and our will – the ability to choose and act according to what our intellect holds as true.

We’re all very much aware of these faculties and use them constantly, as in my intellect says, “No more dessert”; my will helps me say, “No) to the second piece of pie.

The same document of Vatican II says that, “a person freely commits his/her entire self to God, making the full submission of their intellect and will to God who reveals.”

Thus faith is not only the intellect’s adherence to the truth revealed, but also a submission of the will and a gift of self to the God who is revealing himself.

Because it involves intellect and will, it is a stance that involves one’s entire existence.


Grace

Now this power for the intellect to understand and the will to submit requires the grace of God to move or assist them.

Thus, it is the Spirit within us, and the gifts of that Spirit, that will open the eyes of our mind and make is easy to accept and believe the truth.

However, without God’s grace, without the Spirit within us, it’s only going to be our natural seeing and our natural desperate attempt to will it. And it simply isn’t going to happen as we kno
w all to well from experience!

The Canaanite Woman

What a wonderful example of such faith is the Canaanite woman in the Gospel, who in faith, asks that Jesus heal her little daughter.

Remember, she is an outsider to the People of Israel. She is a woman held in low esteem. Despite it all, she’s bold, she’s insistent, she’s undaunted in her request!

And what’s Jesus’ response? “Woman, how great is your faith!”

What we’d say, knowing intellect and will as the elements of faith, is how responsive she is to God’s grace “transmitted” to her and “received” as a flash of understanding in her intellect, and the indefatigable power of her will.