{"id":2995,"date":"2019-10-06T09:23:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T13:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2995"},"modified":"2019-10-06T09:23:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-06T13:23:58","slug":"27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

27<\/a>th<\/a><\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (8)
2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Luke 17:5-10
October 6, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Habakkuk the\nprophet cried out, \u201cHow long, O LORD? I\ncry for help but you do not listen!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever\nfelt the same way?  Have you asked God\nfor help but feel like you don\u2019t get an answer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see\nviolence and pray that it end but it seems that the Lord does not\nintervene.  We see ruin and\ndestruction.  What is the Lord doing\nabout it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are the\nstandard answers that people might give when prayers aren\u2019t answered like, \u201cYou\naren\u2019t asking for the right thing or God will answer at the right time.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe\nthese might be the correct answers sometimes. \nThen I say if I am not asking for the right thing, let me know what the\nright thing is.  If it isn\u2019t the right\ntime now, then I ask the Lord to give me patience (which I need more of anyway)\nto wait.  In either case, I think of what\n\u201cthe apostles said to the Lord, \u201cIncrease\nour faith.<\/em>\u201d  Yes, Lord give me more\nfaith.  Help me to trust in you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did the\nLord answer Habakkuk\u2019s lament?  He told\nhim to write down what he saw so that when it came to fulfillment, Habakkuk\nwould know that he could count on the Lord to fulfill his promises in the right\nway at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I might\nencourage you to keep a spiritual journal. \nWhen things are going well, you write down what you are thankful for and\nwhat the Lord has done to help you. \nThen, you can use that as a source of hope when things aren\u2019t going\nwell.  When things don\u2019t go the way you\nwant, write down what the struggles are. \nThen, when the Lord changes things, you can refer to the struggles that\nyou wrote down to see how the Lord answered your prayers in his way and on his\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting back to the apostles\u2019 plea, \u201cIncrease our faith<\/em>,\u201d how did the Lord answer?  By saying, \u201cIf you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, \u2018Be uprooted and planted in the sea,\u2019 and it would obey you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know\nabout you but I haven\u2019t moved any trees through my words but on a literal level\nI have never tried and I don\u2019t expect to. \nWhat I do seek is help with the struggles of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the\nstruggles you ask the Lord for help with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it\nsin?  What temptations do you struggle\nwith?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it an\nillness?  The loss of a job?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about\nstruggles with decisions about life itself? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October is\nRespect Life Month.  This year the theme\nis \u201cChrist Our Hope in Every Season of Life.\u201d \nWhen one hears the term \u201crespect life\u201d, one might immediately think of\nlife in the womb.  When we think of\nstruggles in the womb, we might think of an unplanned pregnancy or a child in\nthe womb facing lifelong health issues. \nThis can be real struggles in which we ask the Lord to \u201cincrease our faith<\/em>\u201d so that we might\nalways choose life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These can be\nreal struggles of faith.  It can be hard\nto do the right thing.  Sometimes we fall\nshort.  There is always hope because God\nis always merciful when we confess our sins with a contrite heart.  God wants to forgive us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such\nstruggles of life in the womb are a critical part of respecting life but\nrespecting life is about more than just life in the womb.  That\u2019s why this year\u2019s theme is \u201cChrist Our\nHope in Every<\/em><\/strong> Season of Life.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of\nlife often comes with struggles.  Do we\nrely on our faith when making decisions about end of life issues?  Again, we ask the Lord to \u201cincrease our faith.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still,\nrespecting life isn\u2019t just about life in the womb and at the end.  We need to respect life all the way in\nbetween, from womb to tomb.  Do we treat\npeople with dignity, respecting them, in our daily lives?  Do you treat others with love and compassion\nor do you see them simply as a means to get what you what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I turn\nto the words of our psalm response, \u201cIf\ntoday you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.<\/em>\u201d  When I hear this verse, I often wonder why someone\nwould harden their heart when they hear God\u2019s voice.  Hearing this verse in the context of life\ndecisions, I wonder if it means that we need to listen with an open heart when\nthe Lord might give us an answer that we don\u2019t want to hear.  When we don\u2019t like the answer we receive, we\nmight harden our hearts to say that isn\u2019t from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready\nto \u201cbow down<\/em>\u201d and \u201ckneel before the LORD<\/em>\u201d to hear what God\nhas to say and to trust him to \u201cwith the\nstrength that comes from God\u201d<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are we\nreally asking for when we say, \u201cincrease\nour faith<\/em>\u201d?  How much do we want to\nincrease and in what way?  Do we want\njust enough faith to get through the struggle we face but little enough that we\ndon\u2019t have to change how we live our lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I recall\nPaul\u2019s words to Timothy, \u201cstir into flame\nthe gift of God<\/em>.\u201d  When Paul writes\nthis to Timothy, he is speaking of what Timothy received \u201cthrough the imposition<\/em>\u201d of hands in what we call ordination but\nthat doesn\u2019t mean that Paul\u2019s words aren\u2019t relevant to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all\nreceive the gift of faith in our baptism. \nWe need to ask to take the gift of faith that we already have within us\nand stir it into flame.  And I mean\n\u201cflame,\u201d not just some smoldering coals to get us through life.  No, we need to ask God to \u201cstir into flame<\/em>\u201d the gift of the Holy\nSpirit within us to shape our whole <\/em><\/strong>life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year CHabakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (8)2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14Luke 17:5-10October 6, 2019 Habakkuk the prophet cried out, \u201cHow long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen!\u201d Have you ever felt the same way?  Have you asked God for help but feel like you don\u2019t …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,12,7],"tags":[641,642,160],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Mj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2995"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2999,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995\/revisions\/2999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}