The Mustard Seed of Faith: Living and Sharing God's Transformative Love
Praise for the Thessalonians' Faith
We have a. Very beautiful example of Saint Paul praising the Thessalonians during the Mass today. During the Epistle today he's praising them because they took so well to the faith when he brought it to them that even through their suffering and tribulation, they latched so strongly on to the faith that everywhere they went. The faith took roots.
The Nature and Purpose of Faith
So traders, people who traveled outside of Thessalonica. Whoever went to wherever they went, the faith followed with them because it was just the natural spread of people who lived the faith to the point that he he jokes that we don't have to do any work anymore. So wherever we go, they end up telling us the story of your conversion because you've already given the faith to them. So it makes our job a lot easier.
Understanding God's Love
So it's it's a beautiful testimonial of what the natural fruit of the faith is when we consider what the what the faith is. It is a knowledge of God by God, so that we may be able to live in God. That's effective. That's effectively what the faith is about. It is knowledge so that we will be able to, by subordinating our minds to the one true God, we will be able to live according to the principles that He puts out before us, that we will be able to appreciate and accept and believe in the love that he has given us. That is the whole purpose of why he gives us faith.
Love as Self-Giving
Because it's just too extraordinary for our minds to comprehend the fact that we poor sinners could actually be lovable enough that God would give so much of himself for us. It just beggars belief. We don't actually understand how that could be the case. But it is absolutely true that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son.
Our Response to God's Love
We know this. It is of the faith. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ came on to the onto this Earth so that He might give us a chance at heaven to not just enough that he humbled himself to this level so that we will be able to see him, but also so that we will be able to have eternal life with him. He gave us life when Saint Thomas Aquinas talks about the creation of all things. He talks about it from the perspective of There was no reason for it and God was absolutely and perfectly entirely self-sustainable. Be happy. He did not need anything. Creating the universe did not fulfill a need except for the most simple one.
The Call to Missionary Action
He was so happy. Being God, he is perfectly an infinitely happy. He wanted to share his love with so many creatures because love is self effusive. It gives of itself. If we have something that gives that makes us happy, our instinct should be to share it. If we have love, we should want to share it with other people. That is the difference between selfish love, which is not truly love and real love. Real love is creative. It makes things. Real love is giving of self overflows from the. From the depths of our souls.
Overcoming Fear and Witnessing Faith
The temptation for us when we come, when we can combat the modern world and we look out into the modern world, is that we see so many dangerous and so many problems and so many temptations outside that we tend to want to withdraw within ourselves to protect to protect my faith, to protect this kernel, the seed that God gave to us, to shelter it from the storms and tempests of the worlds.
Flourishing in Faith
But that's not the nature of what love is. So rather God is calling us. Quite the contrary. To be missionaries, to go out and to spread what has been given to us. Hence, we have these two very beautiful analogies in the Gospel today, the two parables. Yes. The faith is a seed. It is planted in our soul. It is given to us so that we may be able to bear fruit. It is not supposed to remain a seed forever. It is supposed to flourish into a tree.
Courage Amidst Challenges
It is supposed to be supposed to be, rather than just hidden away in the earth. It is supposed to spring up and spread out. So that all may see it to the point that yes, even the birds of the air may find rest in its branches. It is supposed to be so evident that everybody can see who we are. Now, unfortunately, we have a problem in our world. We tend to be very cowardly in our faith. We tend to be rather embarrassed of our faith. Hide it away.
Living a Holistic Faith
Shelter away from it. Protect ourselves from the ridicule and mockery of the world's. Hide away from persecution, from problems, from fights, from just uncomfortable truths that the others would have to listen to, whatever it may be. We may even be a little bit embarrassed about the fact that we have the faith and others do not. We may hide things, hide things away from other people. This is a very common temptation, again, because we are so worried about losing something, we are so worried about being mocked for it or whatever else may be the case or because our faith is simply too superficial. Which means it is just simply a seed. Nothing else as yet. But it needs to flourish.
Embracing Divine Love
And so it needs to grow out. And it needs to reveal itself before all the world. The way this is going to happen is by truly appreciating and believing in what the faith means. It means that God loves us. He loves us so much. He wants to spend all eternity with us. And he was willing to sacrifice his only begotten son's life for that purpose. He delights to be among us. He wants to be within us. He wants to be with us at all times.
Love for Love
This is why he created us. This is why he redeemed us. This is why he sacrificed himself on the cross for us. This is why he gave us grace, which is a participation in his very nature. So that we would actually have a right to heaven. Not because of us, but because of his goodness. Because of how much he loved us.
Faith as Living Mission
So if we have faith. But it does not produce a tremendous act of love within us in response to the love of God. That faith is nothing more than just the simple seed that. Not germinating, not flourishing. But rather it has to be the catalyst to become. The thing that identifies us as the children of God. If God loves us and if we are his children, then we will love as well. If we are children of the Kingdom of Heaven, then we will love the same way God loves us, which is the commandment at the Last Supper to love one another as I have loved you.
Missionary Spirit Through Charity
And so our response to everybody around us, our response to the world and its plight and in its torments, it's a response to the difficulties and the persecutions and the fights that we may have with other people and the discomfort that our faith may bring. Other people will always be one of charity. Why did the Thessalonians make such a mark on people? Why did the Thessalonians change so much in so many things in the in their wake that St Paul's labor was reduced considerably, that his fame went before them, not before him.
Transformed by God's Love
Why did that happen? It was because they were so enraptured by the simple fact that God loved them and that he had redeemed them from their sacrifice to idols. They were no longer kept prisoner by their lack of faith. They are no longer kept slaves and their sins, but rather they are able to be free. So of course the first thing they wanted to do was to free others and to help shine the light for others and to guide others.
The Impact of Authentic Witness
Now, does this mean that they went around and dragged everybody they could to the nearest church? Or they just knocked down doors and found people and said, Guess what? I have a story to tell you about. This guy called Paul and his the faith he just gave me. Of course, Scott. But what happened was they were so overcome with the love of God that it poured out of them. Everything they did demonstrated how much they had transformed and how much the love of God meant to them.
Faith as the Foundation of Witness
So that when it came time for them to talk to other people, people noticed the difference. People noticed that these were different people. They were they were people set apart. And so as a result, people wanted to know what the secret was, what their problem was, why they were different. And then they could tell their story. They could tell the story of how Paul had told them all about our Lord Jesus Christ coming down to earth, dying for us, giving us grace. And rising from the dead.
Rediscovering Enthusiasm for God's Love
This is a story that resonated. It's a story that is impactful and powerful and. Well, it should be. It has been the the the foundation stone of our church. For these 2000 years and more. But now. Unfortunately, we have lost something of the simple enthusiasm of the fact that God loves us. It's become almost commonplace.
Appreciating the Depth of God's Love
But we must consider what it means. God loves us, how we want to, where we want to put the emphasis, the fact that God loves us, the fact that He loves us, or the fact that He loves us. Wherever you want to put the emphasis, wherever you want to put the the the the impact. It always comes down to the same thing. Why? There is nothing that we can give back to him that he does not already have.
Responding to Divine Love
We don't add to his happiness. We don't make him a better being. We don't increase anything for him. And yet he desires this and he desires it so much that he is willing to give us chance after chance. He is willing to work with our imperfections and our weaknesses to such an extraordinary extent. And he's willing to overlook our many sins and our many difficulties, and he's willing to strengthen our weaknesses, and he's willing to do so much for us.
Living Out Faith in Everyday Life
And so therefore that is the spirit we must have, if he is willing, out of pure love, to give us that much, we must give no less to him because he is love and he has shown us love. We must respond. Love for love. So how do we do that? Well, the first thing is we must make our faith live.
The Effect of Living Faith
So the other parable that our Lord told is about that little bit of leaven that is hidden in the in the measures of meal. Now, anyone who's ever baked bread or anything else knows that just takes a little bit of yeast, a little bit of leaven or whatever else. For the whole doe to become alive and to rise. But you have to mix it in. It has to be an integral part of every part of the DOE. It will rise. It will live. But once that happens, once it is mixed, the substance changes. It is no longer just flour and water. It is now changed into a living thing that can be baked, that can be made into something that is for that That is good.
Faith Integrating Every Aspect of Life
And so it is with us. The faith must permeate every facet of our existence. We must live through the sight of faith. Whatever we hear from the world, from the sermons, from our our families, from everybody, must be through the lens of hearing the faith. We must hear the voice of God in all of these things. Even if it's as a counterpoint to what God is actually teaching us.
Seeing with the Eyes of Faith
But we must have the faith as the with the perception of why things are what it is we are listening to when we are looking at upon anything or anyone. We must see them with the eyes of faith. When we are acting, it must be an act based upon the face. When we are speaking, it should be with the voice of the face.
Living Each Moment by Faith
Every part of our being is now belonging to the faith, and so therefore must be inspired by and directed to the faith. Every particle of our being now belongs to that life. It belongs to grace. It belongs to heaven, not here on earth. And everything that has to do with this life and this earth is at the service of eternal life and grace.
Transformative Power of Living Faith
The life of grace. And that is how we must now live. That is how we must now act and speak. And it must impact all of our faculties and all of our. All of our faces and and of our. Of our existence. Our entire life must be taken up by the faith. Absorbed by the faith. Magnified by the faith. Brought to life by the faith, because once we appreciate what it is we have, we will fall in love with the faith. And that love will bring everything into action and give us new life, not just in theory, like in the seed, but actual real life. And that is where things start to overflow.
Practical Steps to Living a Vibrant Faith
So how do we do this on a more basic principle? How do we get to that point more basically? It's nice to talk about the theory of how things should be and how we should live the life, etc. But the fact of the matter is, we're not there yet. Not all of us are Saint Paul or whatever else. So how do we get from just simply receiving the faith to being able to live the faith so that we could become missionaries?
Cultivating a Life of Prayer
Well, first step is prayer. How do we pray? What is our prayer life like? What is our sacramental life like every time that we approach the communion rail? Are we trying to receive communion more perfectly? Are we trying to appreciate the gift that God gives to us? You are saying that Justin points out with all food we assimilated into our being, but with communion we are assimilated into him.
Embracing the Sacraments
Are we really trying voluntarily to do that, or are we trying so that we can surrender ourselves and be assimilated more completely into our divine redeemer? Are we surrendering ourselves more each time we receive communion? Every time we go to confession, are we really coming out with a strategy of how we're not going to fall into sin again whenever we say our rosary?
Authentic Participation in Mass
Are we starting into the rosary ready and and reflective, ready to pray? Or are we just kind of rushing into it because, well, I got 20 minutes available for this rosary, so I'm just going to get this done. How are we approaching these things? How are we praying? How are we receiving the sacraments? How do we get close to mass?
Engaging Fully with the Mass
How do we approach the mass? Three Stand outside and talk for as long as we possibly can. And then we hear the bell. We come scrambling in at the last minute and then just kind of try to piece together our attention as time goes on. Or do we try to really live the mass? Preparing ourselves, silencing ourselves, getting ourselves prepared for it. How do we live the mass? How do we see the sacrifice of Christ? How do we participate in it? How do we give ourselves to Christ in the same way that He gives us to eat to it?
Reflecting Christ’s Sacrifice in Ourselves
To us how? Same way that He gives himself to us. How does he do all of these things? This is his role that we must follow. This is his example that we must follow. He offers himself. He gives himself. We must respond in kind. So these are the questions we have to ask ourselves.
Charity as the Missionary Spark
And lastly, we must get to the conclusion that this charity that God gives to us must be a missionary spark. Because we don't live in this world for ourselves. We live in this world for him and to spread his kingdom and to spread his message. And as such, we must dedicate ourselves to his service.
Spiritual Preparedness for Mission
Now, one very important point is that when the church chooses missionaries, she doesn't just grab them by the collar and throw them to a remote or a remote continent and tell them to start a mass and start a chapel. They chose the people who were but that were spiritually disposed for this, which means that that charity was already existing out of them. You know, Vegas can't be choosers, so you get me.
The Spirit of Charity in Mission
But the fact of the matter is, those were the holiest priests. They were the ones who are most driven to give of themselves. They were the ones who were supposed to go to the ends of the earth, start the mass, start the chapel, learn different languages, do the most extraordinary labors and efforts, and frequently die out of love for their faith and to give of themselves to the faith.
Embracing a Life of Faith and Mission
That is something we must all learn, because that is the that is the that is the spirit. Each and every one of us must have, because it is the spirit of the charity of the faith. We must all live in this charity of the faith. So let us ask God, how can we do these things better? How can we say the mass better? How can we attend mass better? How can we participate in the mass better? How can we be a part of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ better? How can I say my daily rosary? Better.
Practical Growth in Faith
How can I receive my communion better? How can I go to confession better? How can I truly make the seed of the faith live in my souls so that so my soul, so that I will be able to bring to fruition all of this message and be a part of the missionary spirit for the salvation of all souls, so that we may all be eternally happy in heaven.
Summary
The homily by Fr. Gerrity centers around the transformative power of faith when authentically lived and shared. It begins by highlighting St. Paul's praise for the Thessalonians whose faith spread naturally and helped propagate Christianity. Fr. Gerrity underscores faith as a gift and knowledge from God, empowering us to live according to divine love and principles. He calls attention to the fact that true love, like God's, is selfless and creative, intended to be shared rather than hidden amidst modern challenges. The essence of the message is that genuine faith should compel us to act in charity and to spread God’s love, just as the Thessalonians did.
Fr. Gerrity further teaches that living faith is an active journey requiring prayer, sacramental devotion, and a deep understanding of Christ's love and sacrifice. He stresses that faith should permeate every aspect of our lives, enabling us to see and act in the world through God's perspective. By doing so, we are transformed, allowing our faith to flourish like a well-kneaded dough of living bread. He encourages constant self-reflection and improvement of practices such as prayer, participation in the Mass, and engagement with sacraments to truly embody the missionary spirit, leading ourselves and others towards eternal happiness with God.