Twenty-seventh Sunday Ordinary Time
October 2, 2022 •
Our difficulty with faith is not so much not having it, as it is with other things getting in the way. Remember when Jesus says we are like the ground that needs to receive the seed of Truth, of the Gospel Truth, that He wants to plant in our minds and hearts. But there’s a problem with the ground.
There are rocks in it. Seeds can’t grow well in rocky soil.
Maybe there are weeds or other plants in the way.
To make the ground fertile, you have to till it, pull up the weeds, get rid of the rocks.
In our own minds and hearts, there is so much junk in the way that it’s killing the faith that is trying to grow day by day.
“I want to believe. But….”
All of those “buts”. How do I get rid of that?
First and foremost, you must avoid those things in your life that constantly lead you to doubt your faith in God.
The news is a great one. …You need to stop watching the news. It’s not helping you.
“But I need to know what’s going on in the world.”
Really? Really? You need to know what’s going on in the world? Why? What good does it do you? How does it help you in any way except fill your mind with worrisome things which you can do nothing about?
I constantly fill my mind with things that are totally out of my scope, beyond my ability to influence. And then I expect God to give me peace about them!
But wait, I have an intellect. I have a mind. Shouldn’t I know as much as I can?
The only answer to that is to go back to Genesis when the Lord created Adam and Eve. Remember, original sin is that they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the original sin that tainted us all. Our desire to have knowledge, not just of good, but also of evil.
Our problem is that we know too much evil. Not only by personal sin which needs to be confessed and removed, but also by filling our minds with all of the evil things people do in the world.
What has to change in me that I can become more like God? That I’m not tossed about, as Saint Paul says, by the winds of this world? Emotionally. Intellectually. That I hold fast to the faith. That I’m grounded in it. Planted in it.
I need to ask the Lord to remove from my mind all of the evil that I have learned over these years. So that, in the end, there’s nothing but Truth.
And yes, by removing this, part of my knowledge base shrinks. It becomes small, and pure, and simple like that of a child. That’s why Jesus tells us we need to become like children.
Children are far more easily at peace with the circumstances in their life, even when they’re suffering, precisely because they don’t know as much as adults do. Our Lord says we need to be like that.
All of that knowledge that doesn’t help you maintain faith and peace? It needs to go.
How do I become detached from the things that fill my mind and negatively impact my faith? So that I too can have the faith of a child, the faith the size of a mustard seed. And have the peace and joy of spirit that will come along with that purity.
Hb 1:2-3; 2:2-4; Ps 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8; 2 Tm 1:6-8, 13-14; Lk 17:5-10:2
Homily begins at 20:07