Faith Is Part Of Our Overall Existence

Many years ago, when I was in Law School my wife and I worked with Catholic Engaged Encounter. We would go to meetings. We worked diligently to prepare talks and to learn them. We would spend weekends away actually giving the weekends. At the time I worked for one of the councilmen in New Orleans. He repeatedly asked me why we did that. Why we wasted our time. I would tell him that we did it because it was important to us and the Church. These discussions always turned into discussions on religion. One such time he questioned my faith. At the end of the conversation, he told me, “Jodi, I just don’t have faith.” I never forgot that comment, but I never believed it either. Jesus says, “If you have the faith of a mustard seed you can say to the mountain move from here to there and it will obey. Nothing will be impossible to you.” But how do you get faith the size of a mustard seed?
I believe that everyone has the seed of faith planted within them. What I mean is that everyone has the capacity to have faith. We just have to develop it. Often when the Church gives us a reading for a Sunday, it we “skip” a part of the reading. This happened Sunday before last with the reading from Hebrews.
FROM HEBREWS 11, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
I have to tell you a story. I listen to a lot of CD’s in my car and they are not music CD’s. I listen to books on tape, CD, and lectures of prominent people and sometimes recorded interviews. The other day I was listening to a recorded interview and the question was asked about the nature of our spiritual existence. The story was related about how the Dead Sea Scrolls were writings from the Essenes, a very orthodox sect of the Jewish religion that existed as far back as five hundred years before Jesus. Many people believe that Jesus was educated by them and it is almost undisputed that John the Baptist was educated by them. In the Scrolls we find it said that when you achieve unity of the mind, body and spirit you can say to this mountain to fall into the sea and it will obey. Jesus said something similar, but called it faith. Tonight we have the reading from Hebrews that gives us St. Paul’s definition of Faith. The realization of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. NOT SEEN! That is the important part. Sometimes when the Church gives us a reading, it consists of a chapter from Scripture and it omits some of the chapter. Tonight, we heard the letter to the Hebrews and it was chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 then it skipped to verse 8. So, I went to verses 3-7 and here’s what I found, “By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being from the invisible.” Remember the definition of Faith, “…evidence of things not seen.” In a homily I gave some time ago, I preached that Faith is an action word. Our action evidences our belief and that is faith. And, that is true. But it goes deeper than that. Let me give you the modern day examples of faith that have nothing to do with religion.
Every time you put the key into the ignition of your car, you are exhibiting the faith you have that the car will start. Every time you turn on a light switch you are exhibiting the faith you have that the light will come on. Do you think people 200 years ago had enough faith to move a little plastic button on a wall up and down expecting the lights to come on? Of course not! We exhibit faith in the pilots of airplanes we fly in, the mechanics that repair our cars, the builders that build our houses. We show our faith by the way we act. I could go on and on, but the point is that faith exists. But this faith doesn’t just happen. We have to work on our faith. We have to develop it. Remember my councilman friend? Well, he certainly has faith in his auto mechanic and his airline pilot and the builder of his house. He has developed that faith by driving his car, by flying in planes, by living in his house. As far as his faith in God, he just hasn’t developed it yet. And here, I believe is the message of tonight’s readings. We have to work on our faith.
The other part of the definition of Faith is “the realization of things hoped for…” I think it takes faith to have hope. Take for example hope in a cure for some disease. When we find it, we realize our hope. But, it takes faith that the cure will be found to work on finding it. Likewise, in our spiritual life, we hope that God will bless us and we evidence that hope by living our lives in a way that is consistent with what God wants for us. Whenever Jesus healed, he did not say, “Go, I have cured you.” No, he always said, “Your faith has cured you.”
I want to challenge all of you today with three statements that involve Faithn1. There are no God made Failuresn2. There is no such thing as luck
3. No one can make a failure out of me (but me)
I have an uncle who has always been a little different. He is an artist, a very good one and so he is very creative. He looks at things differently. Years ago when the internet was still new and people were starting the e-mail “chains”, I got one about “send this to 10 within 20 seconds and your wish will be granted.” Well, he sent me an e-mail back saying in short, there is no such thing as luck. And now, I know what he meant. Luck is having your spirit, your mind and your physical natures working together. It’s called faith. For as with the part of the reading that was not included in that Sunday’s reading, the seen comes from the unseen. We connect with God on the spiritual level and when we do, He allows great things to happen in our lives. When we lose that spiritual connection with God, we evidence our lack of faith and we lose hope. It is in lack of hope, that failure exists.

1. There are no God made Failuresn2. There is no such thing as luck
3. No one can make a failure out of me (but me)nn n