Talk for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in O.T.
October 3, 2010
Faith Alive

Last Sunday’s Palm Beach Post had a powerful story that gripped me when I saw it. It was titled Thanksgiving Massacre Survivor Reclaims His Life. “A week out of his coma, voiceless and all but paralyzed, Patrick Knight prayed with a priest in his hospital room. The priest let slip what seemed then the cruelest phrase: "Let her watch over him”. It was this way that Knight learned, three months after the massacre in Jupiter, that his wife was dead, not pregnant at home with his unborn child. On that day in March his gut heaved, but his immobile body could hardly mourn. I feel so blessed: Patrick Knight, now the attorney, is working again and delivering motivational speeches. Patrick Knight, nearly killed on the day he lost his wife, inspired audiences.

Only God can worked these kinds of miracles – and consequently it is through Faith that Patrick Knight can act in this admirable spiritual manner. Faith, as you know, is a gift from God – never, never take it for granted. Our first reading from Habakkuk 1& 2. ”How long O Lord I cry for help but you do not listen. I cry out to you,”Violence" but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord. The Lord answered me and said: But the just one, because of his faith, shall live.” Now the historical context for that reading was that the Assyrians were attacking the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, but this has great relevance for us today – living in the midst of daily violence. And instead of getting more guns, armies etc. the Bible, as the prophets have always insisted that total trust in a loving and powerful God. Our responsorial psalm, though brief, says it all. ”If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” .Come let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us joyfully sing psalms to him.”

Paul in his letter to Timothy 1: ”Beloved I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands .For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control .So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,. but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Luke 17: The apostles said to the Lord, ”increase our faith” .The Lord replied, ”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”.