FR. JUSTIN’S HOMILY FOR THE 27TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C (3)




FR. JUSTIN’S HOMILY FOR THE 27TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C

THEME: EXPRESS YOUR FAITH IN GOD

BY: Fr. Justin Nzekwe

HOMILY FOR SUNDAY OCTOBER 2 2022

 

Unfortunately, many people who claim to be Christians do not have faith. They are mainly those who worship God when everything is going fine. Most of the healthy people who no longer come to church today were once active Christians. Most of them became inactive after their faith was confronted with difficult challenges. We know the level of our faith by the type of temptation we are able to surmount and still stand firm as faithful Christians. We need to have strong faith in order not to reject God at a difficult time of our life.

In the gospel reading of today, Jesus says, “If you had faith as much as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Upgrade yourself and go plant yourself in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Faith, by itself, is big enough to enable us to do the impossible. We do not need to have all the faith in the world for us to be good Christians. We only need to have a persistent faith like that of Job. Although Job had faith, but during his terrible moments of temptation, he started questioning everything he ever knew about God, but he never rejected God. He lost everything he had, including his friends who persuaded him to curse God, yet Job continued to trust in God. He continued to express his faith in God even when it seems all hope was lost. However, God finally intervene in his life and restore all he had lost and even more.

We should also be faithful servants who do not seek immediate rewards for doing the right thing. We must avoid having a transactional relationship with God. God is not our business partner, but a loving father. Many of us seek immediate reward from God for all their good works, and when the reward doesn’t come immediately, they say that God has disappointed them. A true servant does everything his master wants him to do without complaining. We must learn to obey God’s will with faith, humility and docility. We must learn to love God not only because of what we shall gain from him, but because God deserves our worship. The first reading reminds us that the just will live by his faith. Our prayers always should be that God may continue to increase our faith. This is because we cannot be genuine Christians if we do not have faith. Faith increases our confidence and trust in God. It makes us to believe that God cannot deceive us, and that our trust in God will not be in vain. Faith enables us to believe the Word of God which we hear each day and to put it into practice. We cannot really have faith just by human strength alone. We need the Holy Spirit, just like Saint Paul reminds us in the second reading of today. It is the Spirit of God that will revive the gift of God, which is in us. For God did not give us a spirit of shyness, but of strength, charity and prudence.

We pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to strengthen us even in our weaknesses, so that we may never give up when it seem all hope is lost. We pray in this holy mass that God may answer the prayers we make to him even with our little faith, through Christ our Lord, amen.

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