SPEAKER_00: Have you ever asked God, Lord, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: I bet you have.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because most of us have.
SPEAKER_00: We look at the world and wonder why evil seems to flourish.
SPEAKER_00: We see wars, violence, broken families, attacks on the church, and people who reject God yet seem to prosper.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we even look at our own lives and ask, Lord, why aren't you doing something?
SPEAKER_00: You know I'm struggling.
SPEAKER_00: If that sounds familiar, that's the prophet Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: And he understands exactly how you feel.
SPEAKER_00: The first reading, he almost argues with God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, why do you remain silent while the wicked devour the just?
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most honest prayers in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But notice something important.
SPEAKER_00: God does not rebuke Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: He asks for asking the question.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he tells him something every believer needs to hear.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The vision still has its time.
SPEAKER_00: If it delays, wait for it.
SPEAKER_00: The just man because of his faith shall live.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Habakkuk, you cannot judge my work by what you see today.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me, I am still writing the story.
SPEAKER_00: That's what faith is.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not believing only when everything makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is trusting God when very little makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: That brings us today's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: A desperate father brings his son to the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: The boy is tormented, suffering terribly, yet the disciples cannot help him.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus arrives, he immediately identifies the real problem.
SPEAKER_00: Because of your little faith.
SPEAKER_00: Notice he does not say because you lacked intelligence or because you lacked talent.
SPEAKER_00: He says they lacked faith.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives one of the most encouraging promises in the entire gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not talking about positive thinking.
SPEAKER_00: He's not suggesting that faith is some magical force that allows us to get whatever we want.
SPEAKER_00: No, faith is confidence in the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: The mustard seed is tiny, almost insignificant.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' point is that God does not need enormous faith.
SPEAKER_00: He simply needs authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: Little faith placed in an all powerful God is greater than great confidence placed in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Today the church celebrates a saint who understood that better than almost anyone else, Saint Dominic.
SPEAKER_00: Dominic was born in Spain at the end of the twelfth century.
SPEAKER_00: As a young priest he watched entire regions of Europe drift away from the Catholic faith because of a movement known as the Abigensian heresy.
SPEAKER_00: Many people had been confused.
SPEAKER_00: Others had stopped believing altogether.
SPEAKER_00: Dominic could have become discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Instead he asked a simple question, how do you bring people back to Christ?
SPEAKER_00: His answer was remarkable, not through anger, not through political power, not by winning arguments, but by preaching the truth with holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Dominic realized that people are rarely converted by someone who merely knows the faith.
SPEAKER_00: They're converted by someone who lives the faith.
SPEAKER_00: So he walked from town to town with almost nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Lived in poverty, prayed constantly, studied sacred scripture, he preached clearly, and because his life matched his words, people listened.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he founded the Order of Preachers, what we know today as the Dominicans.
SPEAKER_00: Eight hundred years later, the church still depends upon the work they began, preaching the gospel with clarity, charity, and intellectual depth.
SPEAKER_00: There's another lesson here Dominic teaches us.
SPEAKER_00: He understood that ignorance is one of Satan's greatest weapons.
SPEAKER_00: People do not know Christ, they will eventually believe almost anything.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Dominic loved to study.
SPEAKER_00: Not because knowledge saves us, but because truth leads us to the one who does.
SPEAKER_00: Our faith is not built upon opinions.
SPEAKER_00: It is built on truth with a capital T revealed by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's why every Catholic should continue learning the faith throughout life.
SPEAKER_00: Read the scriptures, study the catechism, read the lives of the saints, grow deeper every year.
SPEAKER_00: A mature faith is not accidental, it's cultivated.
SPEAKER_00: So as we celebrate Saint Dominic today, perhaps each of us should ask two questions.
SPEAKER_00: First, where is God asking me to trust him even though I cannot yet see what he's doing?
SPEAKER_00: And second, do I know my faith well enough to share it with someone else?
SPEAKER_00: The world does not need more loud voices, it needs more faithful witnesses, men and women who know Christ, who love Christ, and who are not afraid to speak about him with both conviction and charity.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Dominic reminds us that one holy life rooted in prayer, nourished by truth and strengthened by faith, can change the world.
SPEAKER_00: So today, my brothers and sisters, may God give each of us even the faith of a mustard seed, because when that faith is placed in Christ, mountains really do move.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.