How is your faith in God?

“By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son” (Heb 11).

“Joseph was well-built and handsome. After a time, his master’s wife looked at him with longing and said, “Lie with me. But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, as long as I am here, my master does not give a thought to anything in the house, but has entrusted to me all he owns. He has no more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld from me nothing but you, since you are his wife. How, then, could I do this great wrong and sin against God?” (Gen 39, 6-10).

By his faith in God, Daniel disobeyed king Dario; Mordecai faced death penalty instead of following the nonsense law of king Ahasuerus. Someone one said: “faith change people, whom then change the things of the world”.

A consequence of his faith in God and his love for the Church, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, resigned to his responsibility a Pope, even knowing that a large sector in the Catholic Church, would not understand his decision, he broke an unnecessary tradition into the Church: Pope must to remain in his ministry till death, no matter even if he has lost his human abilities, and no longer can do anything, being others who decide and do what belongs to the Pope.

By this same faith, Pope Francis is inviting the entire humanity to take care of the world where we live, no matter if the market owners hate him and his message as well; Pope Francis is asking the Europe countries to look for a solution of thousands immigrants in this continent; furthermore, he is ruling in the Catholic Church, to accelerate the process for those couples who live in irregular marriages situations. Pope Francis knows that some extreme conservative Catholics must disagree with his decision, but he is a man of faith, that is why he renounced to use the Pope Mobil from the beginning of his papacy, even though it would be easier for someone to attempt against his life.

During the summer of 1924, the Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. Eric Liddell, was a committed Christian, who felt that Sunday was the Lord's Day, and during his most important event he refused to run on Sunday, having as consequence of being force to withdraw from the 100 meters race. Liddell continue the following months training for the 400 meters, an event in which he had previously excelled. The day of 400 meters race, when Liddell went to the starting blocks, an American masseur put into Liddell's hand a piece of paper with the quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, "I will honor those who honor me." He not only won the race, but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. Even though, his success in the 400m was largely unexpected.

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? I demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works”, James Apostle reminded in this Twenty-Four Sunday, second reading.

How is your faith working in your life? What are you doing that proves to you that your faith is alive?

Fr. Marco