What Is Faith?
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.”Ps. 138
Faith is what you believe by the testimony of others, and each one decides what he believes. We have direct access to know very little firsthand, everything else we get to know by what we call faith, believing in the testimony of others. We can distinguish natural faith, to refer to the faith by which we access the knowledge of things of this world, always believing in the testimony of others, and religious faith to refer to that which gives us knowledge of the spiritual and eternal.
From what he hears, each one decides what he believes and what he does not. Both of the things of this life, or of history, and of spiritual things. Some decide to believe the version of the story that comes from the black legends invented by those of a contrary political tendency, others prefer to believe what the sorcerer or the fortune teller tells them, others choose to believe some doctors or experts in metabolism, others in the opposite, etc.
Faith is put in what each one decides. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THAT DECISION, because your wellbeing and the health or illness of your body and also of your soul will depend on it. THE DEVIL IS THE FATHER OF LIES, THE ONE WHO SOWS TARES. GOD IS THE TRUTH, the one who sows the best seed for our good, the one who wants our happiness, freedom and eternal life. Each one decides whether to put his faith in God, revealed in Christ, who became one with his Church, or if he prefers to put his faith in what some men say who deny it gratuitously, that is, without proof, tendentiously, moved by their interests and ideologies. THAT DECISION WILL DEPEND ON THE DIRECTION WE GIVE TO OUR LIVES, if we live in the truth that liberates us or in the lie that embitter us and makes us victims.
God tells us in his Word that faith in him opens us to his divine Life, to his Holy Spirit with all his gifts. Faith in Him is the door through which God enters our lives, with all His blessings; like those received by many in the gospel: let it be done according to your faith. And they were cured. Elsewhere, he couldn’t do many miracles because of his lack of faith, the gospel says.
FAITH IS LIKE A SIXTH SENSE that gives us access to a knowledge of the spiritual and eternal, for it opens us to accept the truth revealed by God Himself. That is why he insists in his word that IT IS BY FAITH THAT WE OPEN OUR HEARTS TO JESUS, THAT WE OPEN OURSELVES TO THE GIFT OF HIS DIVINE LIFE. But faith comes by ear. Only by listening to his word can we know it and only then can we value, appreciate and enjoy it; It only benefits him and is really known by those who have it.
“How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without anyone preaching to them?”Romans 10,14f
FAITH COMES BY PREACHING,.. and is also strengthened by it. Being the access to the knowledge of God, it is by it that we are freed from many erroneous and deceptive beliefs, idola. tries and sins. ITS BENEFITS ARE COUNTLESS AND INVALUABLE, because it saves us from being victims of many deceptions and suffering that we have for ignoring God, and reveals to us the way that leads to salvation.
Readings for the Week
Sunday: Is 22:19-23/Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8 (8bc)/Rom 11:33-36 Mt 16:13-20
Monday: 1 Thes 1:1-5, 8b-10/Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b/Mt 23:13-22
Tuesday: 1 Thes 2:1-8/Ps 139:1-3, 4-6/Mk 6:17-29
Wednesday: 1 Thes 2:9-13/Ps 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12ab/Mt 23:27-32
Thursday: 1 Thes 3:7-13/Ps 90:3-5a, 12-13, 14 and 17/Mt 24:42-51
Friday: 1 Thes 4:1-8/Ps 97:1 and 2b, 5-6, 10, 11-12/Mt 25:1-13
Saturday: 1 Thes 4:9-11/Ps 98:1, 7-8, 9/Mt 25:14-30
Next Sunday: Jer 20:7-9/Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 (2b)/Rom 12:1-2/Mt 16:21-27
Observances for the Week
Sunday: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday: St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Tuesday: The Passion of St. John the Baptist
Next Sunday: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time