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29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Marriottsville Mass for Bon Secours Associates
October 20, 2019
The Ingredients of Faith
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
“Will he find faith…?”
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?”
This is the very last sentence in today’s Gospel. At first, it may seem out of place.
Jesus has just told a story about a widowed woman who keeps asking a judge to render a fair decision in her dispute with someone. Here it is important to recall that women in Jesus’ day had no rights at all.
For example, they couldn’t own any property – including money. So, if a woman became widowed, the money and property – which her husband owned – did not belong to her, as it usually does in our culture.
Instead, it would go their son – if they had a son – or to some other male relative. The woman was left with nothing – impoverished, completely vulnerable.
So, in this parable, Jesus is talking about a widow. And we are told that she is persistent or persevering in seeking a just decision, and that is the point here – her perseverance.
That is the context for Jesus’ statement: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?” Jesus sees perseverance as central to faith, that is, the woman’s faith was the source of her perseverance.
3 Ingredients of Faith
This passage led me to recall a presentation that I recently heard about faith.
The presenter is a man named Don Bisson. He has been a religious Brother in our Church for fifty years.
Don Bisson has degrees in theology, spirituality, and psychology. He gives retreats and does spiritual direction.
Well, in his presentation, Brother Don says that there are three ingredients in becoming a person of real faith. These ingredients can be remembered by the letters I-P-A.
For those of us who enjoy beer, here I-P-A does not mean India Pale Ale. Instead, those letters stand for: 1) Insight, 2) Perseverance, and 3) Action.
1. Insight
First, we need Insight.
We need an understanding of ourselves as being created and loved by God. We need a vision that someday we will return to God and come to the fullness of life.
And we need an idea of how to live on this earthly journey by loving God and loving others as we love ourselves. So, we need this Insight.
But, Brother Don insists, this Insight is not enough. In fact, psychology can give us Insight, but we need more than that to become full persons of faith.
Left alone, by itself, Insight leaves us incomplete. It is not enough for the long run of life.
2. Perseverance
We also need Perseverance.
This isn’t always easy for us. We live in a culture that likes quick-fixes to things.
We want our chipped tooth fixed and a crown put on it right away, and on it goes. So, Perseverance can be difficult for us.
But we need this, for example, when we are working through problems in a marriage or friendship. Those problems usually take time to sort out and resolve.
Because of that, we need to draw upon the power and grace of God to help us. This is the Perseverance that we will need all throughout our lives.
It is an essential ingredient of faith and it helps us to become the kind of person God wants to be. The woman in today’s gospel is a great example of this.
3. Action
And that leads to final ingredient: Action.
The idea is that faith is not just a God-and-me thing. We are to share it by our words and definitely by our deeds.
So, we are to do what we can to assist those in need in our families and our community – like our parish community. And we are also to care for those who are on “the margins of life,” to use Pope Francis’ expression.
This would include people fleeing where they have lived and seeking life or simply survival in another country. If nothing else, we act by at least praying for them.
Action like this helps to make our faith complete.
Conclusion
So, I-P-A – not India Pale Ale, but
(1) Insight
(2) Perseverance
(3) Action
that is our I-P-A today.
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