SPEAKER_00: Lord, increase my increase our faith.
SPEAKER_00: That is the cry of the apostles in today's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, it's our cry too.
SPEAKER_00: We all live with the fear that we don't have enough faith, that our faith is too small, that maybe it's not the right kind of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And underneath that is a deeper fear.
SPEAKER_00: The fear that God isn't listening, that he isn't present, that he isn't there.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth faith is never about quantity.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how much.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how much you have.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, that's enough to move a mulberry tree.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you don't need a warehouse of faith.
SPEAKER_00: You just need a living seed of it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the first treasure we need to unpack from today's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not measured by size, it is measured by trust.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me put it this way every act of faith has built into it the possibility of failure.
SPEAKER_00: Just like every act of courage has the possibility of failure.
SPEAKER_00: But cowards are the ones who never try.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is gutsy.
SPEAKER_00: It takes risks.
SPEAKER_00: It takes saying yes to God every single day when we don't feel like it, or we don't feel like He has all the answers for us.
SPEAKER_00: And this faith is not irrational.
SPEAKER_00: It's not some warm, fuzzy feeling or a blind leap.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is an act of the reason.
SPEAKER_00: It looks at evidence through the evidence of Scripture, through the saints, through lives that have been transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And then one is able to say, that's trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: Faith says, I don't control God, but I trust Him enough to put my life in His hands.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what pride is.
SPEAKER_00: That's why pride is the enemy of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Pride wants proofs.
SPEAKER_00: Pride wants control.
SPEAKER_00: Pride wants to give me a sign.
SPEAKER_00: Pride wants God to play by our rules.
SPEAKER_00: And when he doesn't, the little voices in our heads say, if you don't give me what I want, Lord, then I'm done with you.
SPEAKER_00: Or if I don't see it working out, if I don't see your plan clearly, then maybe it wasn't from you all along.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the enemy is tricking me.
SPEAKER_00: That was Habakkuk in today's first reading.
SPEAKER_00: How long, O Lord, I cry out for help, but you do not listen.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the second treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Faith has to be lived on God's terms, not ours.
SPEAKER_00: God's ways are not our ways.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows us that his own life he trusted completely to the will of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He found the Father present in every trial and every loss, every suffering, even on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the third treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is like a muscle.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't use it, it withers.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not something you can store away in a drawer like a certificate and pull it out when you need it.
SPEAKER_00: You have to exercise it.
SPEAKER_00: That means you need to pray and pray daily and often.
SPEAKER_00: You have to exercise it like you do in relationships, in the way that you forgive and in the way that you trust.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus insists that faith is not a reward we give God or something we deserve a medal for.
SPEAKER_00: It is the ordinary duty of every Christian to have a daily yes, to wake up every day, to say yes to God, and then over time that yes begins to change everything.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me make this practical.
SPEAKER_00: If you talk to a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 20 years, talk to someone who's walked out of depression, talk to a family that stayed together when it could have been easier just to divorce and walk away, talk to someone who's been praying for an intention and then after 25 years the Lord answers.
SPEAKER_00: They will all tell you that faith moves mountains.
SPEAKER_00: They will tell you that God might not show up on our timetable, but he is never late.
SPEAKER_00: And they will tell you that when everyone else abandoned them, Jesus was there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the power of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the challenge of faith in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a society that doesn't do staying power.
SPEAKER_00: We're taught to keep options open, to avoid commitments.
SPEAKER_00: But real life, real love, real relationships demand faith.
SPEAKER_00: Without it, people end up empty, lonely, restless, spiritually bankrupt.
SPEAKER_00: And the part of the problem is that we no longer know how to wait.
SPEAKER_00: We live in an age of instant gratification.
SPEAKER_00: The Wi-Fi is slow, we complain.
SPEAKER_00: If a package takes more than a day, we call it a delay.
SPEAKER_00: If someone doesn't return a text message right away, well then they must be upset with us.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Why haven't they answered?
SPEAKER_00: If prayer doesn't yield results by next week, we wonder if God even cares or if God is listening.
SPEAKER_00: But faith is learned in the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham waited, Israel waited, the disciples waited in the upper room.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting is not wasted time.
SPEAKER_00: It is the school of trust.
SPEAKER_00: It is where we learn.
SPEAKER_00: It is in the waiting that God stretches our faith and teaches us his timing is always better than ours, and that there is a plan.
SPEAKER_00: That's why today's that's why today Jesus calls us not to Christmas and Easter type of faith, not to sometimes faith, but to a tough daily, ordinary faith.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of faith that finds God even in our messiness, even in the how long, O Lord moments.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a final treasure from the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: On the night before he died, Jesus knew his disciples would abandon him.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that their faith would collapse.
SPEAKER_00: And still, he bent down, washed their feet, and said, I no longer call you servants, I call you my friends.
SPEAKER_00: Let that sink in.
SPEAKER_00: God has more faith in us than we have in him.
SPEAKER_00: And that, brothers and sisters, is the real takeaway today.
SPEAKER_00: Faith isn't about how much you can muster, it's about trusting the one who already believes in you.
SPEAKER_00: So a special request today.
SPEAKER_00: When you come forward to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, I want you to bring your mustard seed.
SPEAKER_00: Bring your doubts, bring your fears, your little faith, place it into his hands, and let him grow it.
SPEAKER_00: Because extraordinary things happen when ordinary faith is lived daily.
SPEAKER_00: Mountains of despair move, trees of addiction are uprooted, lives are transformed.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, faith is not about us saying, I believe enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about that.
SPEAKER_00: It's about Jesus saying to us, I believe in you enough to give you my very blood and my body and blood.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we're here.
SPEAKER_00: That's why mass matters.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why your little mustard seed is more than enough.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.