Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Fr. Pete Iorio
October 2, 2022 - 11:00 AM

Audio Recording

In light of the readings today, we focus on the question of faith… not as something to believe, like the creed, which is called the “profession of faith”  but faith as trust and confidence in God at all times and in all situations.

The main question that arises from the readings today is: How big is your faith?  In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Habakkuk, the situation is one that perhaps we can relate to… there is misery and violence all around.  We cry out to God for help. And it seems that God is not listening. God does not care. The prophet says that in the end, the rash person, is one who reacts. That person has no integrity. In contrast, the just person is saved by faith.  That person has trust and confidence that God has got this.

A person of faith sees beyond the present situation and knows inside that God is indeed present and is listening and cares immensely. Faith is a bigger trust in the greatness of a good God.  Faith is confidence and trust in God who made the entire world, and this world is very good.

The scientist Albert Einstein was once asked if the universe is a friendly place. He replied , “if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that is unfriendly.

If we decide that the universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is merely playing dice with the universe, then we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice and our lives have no real purpose or meaning.

But if we decide that the universe is a friendly place then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to create tools and models for understanding that universe because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives.”

In the Gospel, the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. Their faith will certainly increase as they stay the course and accompany Jesus through the remainder of His life, His Passion, His death and His resurrection.  They will come to know Christ crucified and that this love is greater than the fear of death. The only apostle who did not was Judas.

There are basically two types of people… people who live out of a mentality of scarcity where they are always fearful that there will not be enough.  When you live out of this space, you will always be protecting, always guarding your little group or your little piece of the pie. The attitude is that there is never enough. But, that is not the nature of faith.

Jesus came to introduce us to a world of abundance through trust and confidence in the ultimate goodness of God. People of Faith see the big picture … that God is always present and that life and our reality is GOOD!! God is good … all the time, as the saying goes. Faithful people do not live a fear-based life. They live out of a spirit of abundance.  These people of faith can do wonderful and seemingly impossible things, like uproot a mulberry bush and move it into the sea. Faithful people know that more grace is always available.