Homily Notes, 6-20-21 - Faith

 June 20th, 2021
4th Sunday After Pentecost

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes by Raphael

The victory will come to those who have a great faith.

Examples of this great faith:

1. Peter. There is an example of his faith during the event in today's Gospel.  He caught no fish all night long, now it's morning and not the best time to go fishing, not a time that you would expect to get many fish.  The Lord told them to put down their nets.  They got a great catch, more than expected.  There is a great reward for his faith.  We need to have that same confidence and trust in God in times of adversity, rather than trusting on our own strength and ability.

2. Peter's mission as an apostle.  It was not by Peter's own strength that the faith would have a great victory. It was Peter's belief and faith that gave him the strength to lead the Church.  Peter knew his own weakness.  He was a humble fisherman and was chosen to be the head of the whole Church.  Peter understood that great gap, and that it wouldn't be his own talents - it would be God's doing.  He trusted Jesus and believed God was with him and that he was doing God's words.  All the apostles went out on their mission and all the conversions that took place was all by the power of God.  This happened because they had faith, trust, and believed.

3. When Our Lord had to cast out the demon from the young child.  The father brought the child to the apostles and they tried to exercise the devil but it didn't work.  When he asks Jesus to do it, it happens.  Jesus tells them that they weren't able to cast out demons because they didn't have strong enough faith.

The mountain of paganism  was overcome.  The Church was established, despite all obstacles, because the apostles had great faith and passed that faith onto others.

The Blessed Virgin Mary had great faith at the annunciation.  She was chosen to be the mother of God and she believed everything the angel told her.  She didn't doubt, she simply voiced her dilemma: I am a virgin, so how will this happen?

Our motive to believe God is God's authority.  We can't understand everything, but God taught it and so we have to believe it.  God's authority was given to use through His Church, and that Church teaches us what we must believe.  If we reject even one dogma then we are not Catholic.  Our faith must be firm without limits.  It has to exclude voluntary doubt.  When doubt creeps in, we must push it away.  We don't have to understand mysteries perfectly, we just have to accept them.  If we could have perfect understanding then wouldn't need faith.  When we reach Heaven, we will no longer need faith because God will be right before us.  Until then, we don't have the full and complete answers, and we have to accept that.  We have to accept these things on the authority of the Church.  We have to accept what has been revealed to us.

Living a strong faith every single day will change our lives.  We can't just have faith on Sunday morning.  It has to be every day.  The Blessed Virgin Mary had a great faith and will assist us in obtaining the same faith.  She will help us save our souls.