Homily of 27th Sunday in ordinary time
By Fr Oluwafemi Victor Orilua CSSp
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4, 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14, Luke 17:5-10
Faith is not just a mere confession we make at religious gathering. It is all about how we live out our religious calling. It must be expressed in our daily life, by every step we take. It is beyond the affirmation, “I do”. It must be seen in the risks we take for the sake of the gospel. It must be evident in the decisions we make following the Christians values. When we submit our lives into God’s hands and allow him to direct our path, then faith is at work.
Paul said to Timothy, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.”
Moreover, when the Apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith! the Lord said, ‘If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.
When prophet Habakuk narrated the calamities that awaits the disobedient ones, he said that “the righteous shall live by his faith.” That shows that when we follow the ways of the Lord, we would not fear evil days. Hence, faith is an assurance that God is close to us. It is the conviction that he is ever with us, and with him, nothing is impossible. When we have God, we have everything. He is the one who moves the mountains in our life. All we need do, is to present our issues to him, every moment of our life.
However, it is good to check the quality of our relationship with God, before we command
mountains to move. God does not hear the voice of a stranger, unless when they cry to him for
help and not for demonstration of his might. Hence, the exercise of faith is for those who are walking in it. And not for those who do not show their desire for God by practice.
May all we do give glory to God and may our faith in him be seen in the outcomes of our endeavours. Amen.
