October 5, 2025 Homily: Fr. Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03Lord, increase my increase our faith.
2. 0:08That is a cry of the apostles in today's
3. 0:11gospel. And if we're honest, it's our
4. 0:14cry, too.
5. 0:17We all live with the fear that we don't
6. 0:19have enough faith,
7. 0:21that our faith is too small,
8. 0:24that maybe it's not the right kind of
9. 0:27faith.
10. 0:28And underneath that is a deeper fear.
11. 0:31The fear that God isn't listening, that
12. 0:34he isn't present, that he isn't there.
13. 0:39But here's the truth.
14. 0:41Faith is never about quantity.
15. 0:45It's not about how much.
16. 0:48It's not about how much you have. Jesus
17. 0:50says, "If you have faith the size of a
18. 0:53mustard seed, that's enough to move a
19. 0:55mulberry tree."
20. 0:57In other words, you don't need a
21. 1:00warehouse of faith. You just need a
22. 1:03living seed of it.
23. 1:06And that's the first treasure we need to
24. 1:08unpack from today's gospel. Faith is not
25. 1:11measured by size. It is measured by
26. 1:14trust.
27. 1:17Now, let me put it this way. Every act
28. 1:20of faith has built into into it the
29. 1:23possibility of failure.
30. 1:26Just like every act of courage has the
31. 1:28possibility of failure.
32. 1:31But cowards are the ones who never try,
33. 1:35faith is gutsy.
34. 1:37It takes risks. It takes saying yes to
35. 1:41God every single day. We don't feel like
36. 1:44it or we don't feel like he has all the
37. 1:48answers for us.
38. 1:51And this faith is not irrational.
39. 1:54It's not some warm fuzzy feeling or a
40. 1:57blind leap.
41. 1:59Faith is an act of the reason.
42. 2:02It looks at evidence
43. 2:04through the evidence of scripture
44. 2:07through the saints, through lives that
45. 2:09have been transformed and then one is
46. 2:13able to say that's trustworthy.
47. 2:17Faith says, "I don't control God, but I
48. 2:20trust him enough to put my life in his
49. 2:23hands."
50. 2:26Because that's what pride is.
51. 2:30That's why pride is the enemy of faith.
52. 2:34Pride wants proofs.
53. 2:36Pride wants control. Pride wants give me
54. 2:40a sign.
55. 2:42Pride wants God to play by our rules.
56. 2:45And when he doesn't, the little voices
57. 2:48in our head say, "If you don't give me
58. 2:51what I want, Lord, then I'm done with
59. 2:53you. Or if I don't see it working out,
60. 2:57if I don't see your plan clearly, then
61. 2:59maybe it wasn't from you all along.
62. 3:04Maybe the enemy is tricking me."
63. 3:07That was Habacook in today's first
64. 3:10reading. How long, oh Lord? I cry out
65. 3:14for help, but you do not listen.
66. 3:17But here's the second treasure. Faith
67. 3:20has to be lived on God's terms, not
68. 3:23ours.
69. 3:24God's ways are not our ways. Jesus shows
70. 3:28us that his own life, he trusted
71. 3:32completely to the will of the father.
72. 3:35He found the father present in every
73. 3:37trial, in every loss, every suffering,
74. 3:40even on the cross.
75. 3:43And here's the third treasure. Faith is
76. 3:46like a muscle.
77. 3:48If you don't use it, it withers. Faith
78. 3:52is not something you can store away in a
79. 3:54drawer, like a certificate, and pull it
80. 3:56out when you need it. You have to
81. 3:59exercise it. That means you need to pray
82. 4:02and pray daily and often.
83. 4:06You have to exercise it like you do in
84. 4:07relationships in the way that you
85. 4:09forgive and in the way that you trust.
86. 4:13That's why Jesus insists that faith is
87. 4:15not a reward we give God or something we
88. 4:18deserve a medal for.
89. 4:21It is the ordinary duty of every
90. 4:23Christian to have a daily yes. To wake
91. 4:27up every day,
92. 4:30to say yes to God, and then over time
93. 4:33that yes begins to change everything.
94. 4:37Now, let me make this practical.
95. 4:40If you talk to a recovering alcoholic
96. 4:42who has been sober for 20 years,
97. 4:46talk to someone who's walked out of
98. 4:48depression.
99. 4:50Talk to a family that stayed together
100. 4:52when it could have been easier just to
101. 4:54divorce and walk away.
102. 4:56Talk to someone who's been praying for
103. 4:58an intention and then after 25 years the
104. 5:00Lord answers.
105. 5:02They will all tell you that faith moves
106. 5:05mountains.
107. 5:07They will tell you that God might not
108. 5:08show up on our timetable, but he is
109. 5:12never late. And they will tell you that
110. 5:15when everyone else abandoned them, Jesus
111. 5:17was there.
112. 5:19That's the power of faith.
113. 5:22And that's the challenge of faith in our
114. 5:24culture.
115. 5:26We live in a society that doesn't do
116. 5:28staying power.
117. 5:31We're taught to keep options open, to
118. 5:34avoid commitments.
119. 5:36But real life, real love, real
120. 5:40relationships demand faith.
121. 5:43Without it, people end up empty, lonely,
122. 5:46restless, spiritually bankrupt.
123. 5:50And the part of the problem is that we
124. 5:51no longer know how to wait.
125. 5:54We live in an age of instant
126. 5:56gratification.
127. 5:58The Wi-Fi is slow. We complain. If a
128. 6:01package takes more than a day, we call
129. 6:03it a delay. If someone doesn't return a
130. 6:06text message right away, well, then they
131. 6:08must be upset with us. What's going on?
132. 6:10Why haven't they answered?
133. 6:13If prayer doesn't yield results by next
134. 6:16week, we wonder if God even cares or if
135. 6:19God is listening.
136. 6:21But faith is learned in the waiting.
137. 6:24Abraham waited. Israel waited. The
138. 6:28disciples waited in the upper room.
139. 6:32Waiting is not wasted time. It is the
140. 6:35school of trust. It is where we learn.
141. 6:39It is in the waiting that God stretches
142. 6:41our faith and teaches us his timing is
143. 6:44always better than ours and that there
144. 6:47is a plan.
145. 6:49That's why today's That's why today
146. 6:52Jesus calls us not to Christmas and
147. 6:54Easter type of faith.
148. 6:57not to sometimes faith, but to a tough
149. 7:00daily ordinary faith. The kind of faith
150. 7:04that finds God even in our messiness,
151. 7:07even in the how long, oh Lord moments.
152. 7:12And here's a final treasure from the
153. 7:14gospel. On the night before he died,
154. 7:17Jesus knew his disciples would abandon
155. 7:20him. He knew that their faith would
156. 7:23collapse.
157. 7:25And still he bent down, washed their
158. 7:29feet, and said, "I no longer call you
159. 7:32servants. I call you my friends."
160. 7:36Let that sink in. God has more faith in
161. 7:39us than we have in him.
162. 7:42And that, brothers and sisters, is the
163. 7:44real takeaway today. Faith isn't about
164. 7:47how much you can muster. It's about
165. 7:50trusting the one who already believes in
166. 7:53you.
167. 7:56So a special request today
168. 7:59when you come forward to receive Jesus
169. 8:01in the eukarist.
170. 8:03I want you to bring your mustard seed.
171. 8:07Bring your doubts. Bring your fears,
172. 8:11your little faith. Place it into his
173. 8:13hands and let him grow it.
174. 8:17Because extraordinary things happen when
175. 8:20ordinary faith is lived daily.
176. 8:23Mountains of despair move. Trees of
177. 8:26addiction are uprooted. Lives are
178. 8:29transformed.
179. 8:31Because you see, faith is not about us
180. 8:34saying, "I believe enough." It's not
181. 8:37about that. It's about Jesus saying to
182. 8:40us, "I believe in you enough to give you
183. 8:44my very blood and my body and blood."
184. 8:48And that's why we're here.
185. 8:50That's why mass matters and that's why
186. 8:53your little mustard seed is more than
187. 8:56enough. Amen.