GOSPEL MESSAGE & RECORDING
In order that all of us can understand my homily as best as possible, I wanted to begin by asking a question: do you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord, God, and Savior? Of course! I think all of you would say yes. But let me ask you if you have faith in Jesus Christ. That might be harder to answer, so let’s try to figure out the difference between belief and faith.
Believing in Jesus Christ means that we accept the statement that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior as truth. St. James writes in 2:19 of his epistle that “even the demons believe and tremble.” The demons believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. Meaning they know it. But they do not put their trust and confidence in Christ because they are forever arrogant and evil in their ways. So, this shows us that belief is “knowledge.” It knows something is true, but not necessarily putting our trust and confidence in what we believe. On the other hand, although connected to believing, faith means trust and confidence in what we believe. To put our trust and confidence in Christ means we have faith in Him. This takes everything to a whole new level.
St. Paul says in Hebrews 11:1, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” St. Paul is saying that faith is not an aimless grab at something we hope is there, but rather we know, we believe, and we place our trust and our confidence in Jesus Christ because he is real to us. The reasons might be because we had an encounter with Christ or something happened in our lives that were so definitive that there was no doubt God is real.
In Romans 11, verses 23 and following, St. Paul indicates how Moses could accomplish certain things by faith, how the Hebrews passed through the Red Sea by faith, how the walls of Jericho fell by faith, etc. All of it happened because faith was working. That is, they not only believed in God, but trusted and put their confidence in Him.
Faith doesn’t mean everything will go well in our lives.
Sometimes, we think that faith will make everything go well for us. This is not true. Although things can go well, it is not the ultimate outcome. We as Christians should desire that God’s plan and will be fulfilled in our lives.
Capture the opportunities in life.
This means we have to capture and take hold of the opportunities that God gives to us. We shouldn’t let them pass by. Such opportunities might be uncomfortable. Or, it might not be what we expected; nevertheless, God is working through our faith in His Son Jesus Christ for the greater good of the Kingdom of God.
Ultimately everything works out.
In this, we should never lose hope even if our circumstances seem undesirable. We should have faith that God works all things for the good of his children and the glory of His Name.