SPEAKER_00: In today's first reading, God says to King Ahaz, Unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the greatest spiritual principles of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Our stability in life depends upon what we're standing on.
SPEAKER_00: If you build your life on money, well then I become unstable every time the market changes.
SPEAKER_00: If I build my life on success, then I become unstable every time I fail.
SPEAKER_00: If I build my life on other people's approval, then I become unstable every time I'm criticized.
SPEAKER_00: But if I build my life on Christ, then even when everything around me shakes, I remain standing.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly the situation King Ahaz is facing.
SPEAKER_00: Two armies were marching against Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says that the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.
SPEAKER_00: We've all experienced moments like this.
SPEAKER_00: A frightening medical diagnosis, the loss of a job, an adult child who has wandered from the faith, a broken relationship, the future feels uncertain, our hearts begin to tremble.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what God says.
SPEAKER_00: No, he says remain tranquil and do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because peace is not the absence of problems.
SPEAKER_00: Peace is the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Faith does not mean that storms never come.
SPEAKER_00: Faith means knowing who is in the boat with you.
SPEAKER_00: Then God ends with those unforgettable words unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the strength of your life depends on the strength of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to this beautiful feast day of Saint Kataria Tekowitha.
SPEAKER_00: Kateri Tewitha.
SPEAKER_00: She lost her parents as a young child during smallpox epidemic.
SPEAKER_00: The disease left her scarred and nearly blind.
SPEAKER_00: When she embraced Christianity she was mocked by many in her own village and eventually had to leave her home because of her faith.
SPEAKER_00: From a worldly perspective, her life seemed marked by loss.
SPEAKER_00: Yet she became one of the most joyful saints in the history of North America.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because her security was not in her circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: It was in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Kateri teaches us that holiness is not reserved for people with easy lives.
SPEAKER_00: Holiness belongs to those who remain faithful when life is difficult.
SPEAKER_00: She had every reason to become bitter.
SPEAKER_00: Instead she became a saint.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we turn to the gospel, Jesus reproaches the towns where he had worked his greatest miracles because they refused to repent.
SPEAKER_00: At first his words sound harsh, but underneath them is something very important.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is teaching us that privilege brings responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum had seen miracles with their own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: They had heard the Son of God preach, yet their hearts remain unchanged.
SPEAKER_00: It is possible to become or to come to holy things, be close to them without becoming holy ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's the warning for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: We are Catholics.
SPEAKER_00: We are Eucharistic people.
SPEAKER_00: We have the Eucharist, we have the sacrament of reconciliation, we have sacred scripture, we have two thousand years of wisdom in the church.
SPEAKER_00: The question is not whether we have received much, the question is whether we have responded to what we have been given.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we ask God for more signs.
SPEAKER_00: If I only saw a miracle, God if you only do this for me, if only God answered this prayer, if only he made himself more obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Well, perhaps the better question is this What have I done with the graces He's already given me?
SPEAKER_00: Every mass is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Every confession is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we receive holy communion is an encounter with the living Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The danger is not that God stops speaking, the danger is that we become so accustomed to his voice that we stop listening.
SPEAKER_00: So today Saint Kateri and the scriptures leave us with two questions.
SPEAKER_00: Where am I placing all my security?
SPEAKER_00: What am I trying to control?
SPEAKER_00: Is it in Christ or is it something that can disappear tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: And second, my allowing the graces that God has given me to change my life.
SPEAKER_00: Because faith is not measured by how much we know, it is measured by how much we trust.
SPEAKER_00: And holiness is not measured by extraordinary experiences.
SPEAKER_00: It is measured by ordinary fidelity one day at a time, through perseverance, through a structured life, through discipline.
SPEAKER_00: Like Saint Kateri, may we learn to stand firm, not because life is easy, but because Christ is at the center of our lives and he is our foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.