The readings of today reminds us about the importance of faith. The Lord answered Habakkuk in the first reading “the just one, because of his faith, shall live”. In the Gospel, Jesus tells his apostles, “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you”.
Dearest sisters and brothers, the virtue of faith is extremely important and it is the foundation of our lives as Christians. As its foundation, faith helps us see the truth that God is our maker on whom everything we are and have depends. It is only through Him and in Him can our lives be meaningful. Faith helps us to understand this truth; making us see everything, interpret and judge every event that happens and the world around us from God’s perspective.
I often think of faith which is seeing things from God’s perspective as looking at Memphis from 15,000 feet from the sky. If you travel through the streets, you will never appreciate fully the beauty of this city until observed from above, where you will see how well ordered the streets are, well structured the houses are, and how the roads snake through the woods and so forth. Looking at things from our human perspective is just seeing Memphis from the street alone where its beauty is hidden.
As Cardinal Sarah reminds us “faith is not simply an intuition, an emotion, or a feeling but the shape, the mold of our whole life, both private and public, personal and social. It is an openness to accept many unanswered questions about life, trusting in the power and goodness of God no matter how bad the situations are. Simply put, it is like our computer default mode. When we have faith, we will understand life as a gift which Paul tells Timothy in the second readingm reminding him to “stir into flame the gift of God that you have”.
Each of us is a gift from God and we are called to be gifts to each other, humbly knowing that we cannot boast about anything at all since all are gifts from God, including our lives. May our lives always be guided by this fundamental truth.