The Source of Our Faith

Homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Wisdom 18.6-9 Psalm 33 Hebrews 11.1-2, 8-19 Luke 12.35-40

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It seems like it’s almost fashionable these days to give up on faith – or at least to give up on religion. Popular novelist Anne Rice, who made a well-known return to the Catholic faith of her childhood, has publicly announced that she has given up being a Christian. A new billboard on a Louisville interstate tries to get you to join a group made up of people who don’t believe in God. Atheists in Europe have lobbied churches, asking that their names be erased from baptismal registers, because they want to be de-baptized, to completely disassociate themselves from a faith of any kind. Scandals, disappointments, and disillusionment have led people away from an organized practice of their faith. It would be so easy, it seems, to stop all this business of faith.

“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11.1), we hear today from the Letter to the Hebrews. Most people spend their lives looking for this “evidence of things not seen” – trying to find faith, seeking a reason to believe, searching for evidence for God’s existence and action in our lives. And many of us find this evidence – reasons to have faith. But if that is the only way we think about faith, then we’re missing an important part of what it is. Because faith, first of all, is a gift. In the heart of every human being, there is a natural longing for God – we didn’t put it there, God himself put it there. At baptism and through the other sacraments, God strengthens the faith that is already inside us, giving us the grace – the tools – to be able to find what we are longing for – to be able to develop a relationship with God. Faith doesn’t start with us – it begins as a gift from God. And then we must work to develop it.

But if faith is a gift, then we can’t really get rid of it. No matter what we do, no matter how far we stray away from God, even if we try to leave faith behind, that gift never leaves us. There will always be a longing deep in every human heart that can only be satisfied by God. It’s how we’re made. And really, there’s a great comfort in that, there’s a great comfort knowing that faith is a gift and not just something that we have to find on our own. It takes a lot of pressure off of us, and it transfers the focus to God, who can do far more than we could ever hope or imagine. People give up on faith today because the individualism of our society tells us that we have to figure it out ourselves. And when we lose patience trying to put together a perfect life for ourselves, based on what we think is our relationship with God – then it’s easier just to give up. People give up on faith today because we have forgotten how to trust; we don’t know how to turn our lives over completely to someone else.

But true faith can never die. True faith will never disappear. Because true faith does not come from us – it comes from God. What we need to do is get out of the way, and let God bring our dormant faith to life.