27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 4/5, 2025

Perhaps it is because the Apostles drew similar conclusions as us after hearing Jesus

tell his parable about the rich man and Lazarus: That if they wanted to get out of their lonely hell of self-interest and self-isolation, they would have to dare to humanize their encounters with others by learning someone else’s name and empowering the dignity that each person has, that makes them cry out and this made them cry out – INCREASE OUR FAITH! Because they thought they needed some help to do such things. . .

At least the apostles understood that faith wasn’t something they could manufacture on

their own. They at least figured out that it doesn’t develop or grow or evolve by following a “greater faith in 30 days plan”. They knew that faith is a gift from God, so thought they should ask for an increase of the gift. . .

How about us? What is our understanding of faith and do we need more of it?

Pope Leo has said: “Many times in the Church we are often pre-occupied with teaching

doctrine, making faith an activity of the head as if as long as we have all the right knowledge about the faith, we do, indeed have faith. “But then we risk forgetting that the 1st task of faith is getting to know Jesus. Faith is a matter of the heart. And it isn’t how much faith you have that is important, it’s how you use it.”

What Pope Leo is saying, I think, is that faith isn’t something that can be measured, it

can only be lived. . . So knowing about our faith is great, it gives us a foundation on which to build our lives and to establish our values. And so we say we believe in God the Father, in Jesus Christ and in his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the

resurrection of our bodies and life everlasting.

BUT - what’s the point of these beliefs?

Faith, without putting that faith into loving actions, is pointless. Faith is not just an activity of the head. . . it must become an activity of the heart. . . a verb, and not just a noun. What’s the point of having right beliefs, if we’re not loving God, loving our neighbor, and loving ourself as Christ taught us?

What’s the point of having a head full of knowledge of the faith, is it’s not making us

kinder, gentler, more generous people?

More than anything, faith is about trusting God in all things, trusting that God is there for us in the good times and the bad. That that God is Emmanuel, God with us, in the person of Jesus Christ. Trusting seems to get to the heart of the matter, to go deeper into our souls, as opposed to believing something to be true staying up in our heads.

It’s great to know things, however faith might be better defined as trust. And faith as

trust can change our lives. . . as it is meant to do.

So yes, we must nourish our faith and we must use our faith, exercising it like a muscle so

it doesn’t atrophy. And we exercise it best, when we get out of our lonely hell of self-interest and self-isolation and reach out to those in need, and do the best

we can to love those we are called to love.

Today (Saturday) Yesterday Is / Was the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a man of great faith and also a great example of living as one with all of creation, and so the one month ecumenical season of creation, always ends on his feast day. It is also why we have the blessing of animals tomorrow/today at 12:30 because of Francis’ love of animals.

So just a story about the faith of St. Francis –

When, during the Crusades, Francis was captured by the Saracans on his way to the Holy

Land, St. Francis challenged the Muslim religious leaders, the imams, to a duel to prove

which was the true religion. “Light a bonfire,” St. Francis said to the Sultan, “and have one of your imams enter the fire along with me. Whoever emerges from the flames unhurt, follows the true God.” The Sultan thought it was a good idea, his imam did not.

But from that moment on, the Sultan gave Francis and his friars safe passage to travel

anywhere in Muslim territories, unhindered, so much was he moved by Francis’ faith his total trust in God. The same total trust we must have to call ourselves women and men

of faith.

As Pope Leo said, “God loves us, God loves us all, and evil will not prevail! We are all in

God’s hands, therefore without fear, and with total trust in God, united hand in hand with God and each other, let us go forward in peace.