5 October 2025 - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Habakkuk 1:2...2:4; 2 Timothy 1:6...14; Luke 17:5-10
Homily
The prophet Habakkuk lived in a time of trial, when the Jewish people were exposed to invasions and destruction. In his prayer to God, he echoes the cry of the people: ‘Why? Why all this violence and destruction?’ But his vision ends with a cry of hope: " The righteous man will live by his faith." This was our first reading.
In the second reading, we have a text from Saint Paul. At the time he wrote this letter, Paul was an elderly man, a prisoner, awaiting death, which would not be long in coming. He writes to his disciple Timothy, whom he ordained by the laying on of his hands. He urges him not to be timid and not to hesitate to assume the responsibility he has received. He must not be ashamed of his mission to bear witness to his faith in Christ, of whom he is, by virtue of his ordination, a priest and bishop.
And finally, in the Gospel, the Apostles ask Jesus: ‘Increase our faith!’ And Jesus replies: ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this large tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.’
There is therefore a common theme running through these three readings, and that is the theme of faith. But what is faith? Are we sure that we have faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ? We are obviously believers! If we were not believers, we would not be here this morning celebrating the Eucharist in memory of Christ. But being a believer means having beliefs; and ‘having beliefs’ is not the same thing as ‘having faith’.
Faith is total trust. And we can only have total trust in someone we know intimately, someone with whom we have a deep personal relationship, someone we love. And here is another important distinction. I can know a lot about a person and not really know that person. I may have read the biography of the Pope, or of a head of state, or of an author. I may know all the details of their lives. If I have never met them, if I have not established a personal relationship with them, I cannot say that I know them. It is the same with God. I may have read and studied many books about God. I may know the Old and New Testaments well. I may know and accept everything the Church teaches; but if I do not have a personal relationship of love with God in prayer, I cannot say that I know him. I only know beautiful things about him.
That is why Christ once asked His disciples not only what others said about Him, but also, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ "Do you really know Me? ‘ He did not ask them, ’What do you say about my teaching, my miracles, etc.?‘ but rather, ’Who do you say that I am? Do you really know me?"
To have faith in Jesus Christ is to accept to be guided by Him, and even at times to be carried by Him on His shoulders, often without knowing exactly where He is leading us. It means accepting that every time He enters our lives, our entire existence is changed. This was the experience of the prophets of the Old Testament. Above all, it was the experience of the Virgin Mary, whose life was radically transformed when she received the Word of God within her and became, through this act of faith, the Mother of God.
Being a Christian is not about belonging to an organisation called the Church and observing the traffic laws enough to get to heaven, if possible without getting too many fines along the way. Being a Christian is above all about having faith in Jesus Christ, having a personal relationship with Him in prayer. The Church is not so much an organisation as a communion of all those who share the same faith in the same Son of God. And for those of us who are monks, being a monk is not just about belonging to a monastic community and living in a monastery, observing the rules as best we can. Being a monk means building one's whole life around the fundamental value of a personal relationship with God. And that is what gives meaning to all the other aspects of our life, which are only means to that end. These means are important, since we have committed our honour and our faith by publicly promising to use them faithfully; but they are not the object of our faith. These means are at the service of our faith.
As we are about to receive Christ in this Eucharist, who gives himself to us as the food of life, let us say to him with all our hearts, as the Apostles did: ‘Lord, increase our faith.’
Armand Veilleux