Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Apostles did the right thing this time. They had been traveling with Jesus for more than a year: living with him, hearing him preach, watching him perform miracles, and changing people's lives.
They had been his disciples long enough to start realizing that they weren't very good disciples at all. They still didn't understand many things that Jesus said. They still couldn't help people as much as Jesus did.
It would have been tempting for them, at that point, to get discouraged. But instead, they go up to Jesus one afternoon during a lull in their activities, and they ask for his help. They ask him to increase their faith.
Jesus' answer is mysterious. He looks at them and smiles. He must have been glad that they had asked for help instead of abandoning the mission. Then he tells them that they don't need more faith, they just need to use the faith they already have.
He explains that a tiny little bit of faith, the size of a mustard seed - which is about as small as something can be without getting microscopic - is enough to do marvelous things.
We are all like the Apostles. We know in our hearts that we are capable of doing much more, that we were made for greater things. But we don't realize that God has already given us everything we need to achieve them.
He has already planted in our souls the seed of faith, of divine life - he did so at baptism. Now it's up to us to exercise it. If we do, it will grow. And the more it grows, the more room God will have to do truly wonderful things in us and through us.
Saint Mother Teresa's Unshakable Faith
Sometimes we don't experience the full power of faith in our lives because have the wrong idea of what faith really is - we think a mature faith makes for smooth sailing in life, when in fact, it doesn't.
When Doubleday book publishers put out a book of letters written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta to her spiritual directors, the public and the media were shocked. Everyone thought that Mother Teresa was the happiest person in the world, that her faith was so strong that nothing bothered her.
And that is exactly the wrong idea of what faith is. Mother Teresa is a saint. Her faith was mature, strong, and contagious - it moved mountains, and it's still moving mountains. But it didn't make her crosses disappear.
Her faith was so strong that she fulfilled her promise never to deny God anything that he asked - but it didn't take suffering out of her life. For fifty years she struggled with interior darkness and the feeling of being abandoned by God.
In one of her letters, she wrote:
Faith isn't a problem-free philosophy - that's superficial and naïve. Faith is strength with length. It's the power to persevere through difficulties, the power that comes from knowing that our Father's in charge. If that's our idea of faith, then we too, like Mother Teresa, will be able to move mountains - even when our souls are so dark that we can't see them.
Heeding the Voice of God in Our Conscience
The Responsorial Psalm we heard today gives us one surefire way to activate the power of faith: "If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart."
Faith is practical. If we believe in God's wisdom, love, and power, we will obey him. We will follow where he leads. And he is always leading us somewhere - always making his voice heard.
The most common way he does so is through our conscience. Our conscience is like an inner radio station that is always tuned to God's voice. But it's not the only station out there, and, unfortunately, it's not always the loudest.
Sometimes we turn up the station of peer pressure and fashion really loud, or the station dedicated to self-indulgence, irresponsible pleasure, and other soothing but deadening sounds.
That's why the Psalmist tells us: "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts." We should decide ahead of time that whenever our conscience starts to ring, we will pay attention. And we should decide ahead of time that if we aren't sure what exactly our conscience is saying, but we know it's saying something, we will get some good advice from someone who knows Christ and his teaching before we act.
That's the only way God will be able to strengthen us to move mountains - the mountains of sin and sorrow that clutter the world. That's the only way God will be able to guide us home from exile and give us the inner peace and prosperity that we long for.
If we have something on our conscience today, let's promise Christ that we will take care of it. And if not, let's promise him - when we receive him today in Holy Communion - that we will pay special attention to his voice this week, and not foolishly harden our hearts.
St. Anne's Church
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Stanley, Hong Kong
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