Today’s question is not for you to answer just for today’s homily. Rather, it’s a question you can keep asking yourselves over the years to come. Actually, it’s not my question. It’s a question Jesus addressed to his followers two thousand years ago. It’s a question he directs to us, each and every day of our lives. There in a boat, on a storm-tossed sea, he inquired: “Do you not yet have faith?” During the tempests occurring in our own lives, he continues to ask: “Do you not yet have faith?”
Faith. What is faith? In the next few weeks, the Gospel readings will continue to ask this question. We will be hearing, once more, a series of stories found in Mark’s Gospel about faith – or a lack of faith. Mark’s Gospel, itself, addresses many issues centered on the faith of the people. In the passages immediately before the account we heard in today’s reading, Jesus tried to teach his followers about faith – as he spoke in parables about the sower and the seeds sown and about a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. However, it seems merely talking to them about faith, was not the best way for his followers to really know the meaning of faith.
Just what is faith? Probably many things. Each meaning depends upon so many related words and thoughts.
● Words such as: fidelity … commitment, dedication, loyalty.
● Words such as: trust … confidence, reliability, truthfulness.
● Even words such as: mercy, justice and forgiveness.
● And perhaps, of greatest importance, the words: love, compassion, and charity
Yes, there are many words to express the meaning of faith. So many that we can become lost in a morass of words and lose all sense of what faith is really all about. Jesus had that problem. He spoke in parables about faith and still needed to ask those who had listened to him: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
Perhaps today’s reading is to show us that, although we can hear about faith, about trust, the only way to truly understand faith and trust is to experience them firsthand. It is said we are born with a sense of faith, a sense of trust, a sense that we can rely on others – especially upon our parents – rely upon them to provide, to protect, and to nourish us. However, these attitudes – these “beatitudes,” if you will – must be reinforced throughout our lives. Without such reinforcement, without a daily experience of fidelity, truthfulness, mercy and forgiveness, without a lived experience of trust and of faith, we can lose these gifts of God, these virtues instilled in us at birth.
Today, in our secular world, it is not difficult to lose them. Today, there are many among us who lack faith and trust in one another and in our economic and governance systems. Many would even attribute our decline as a nation to such losses of faith and trust. Others maintain we will remain in this position until we, once more, re-establish our civic trust in one another and in our leadership systems.
On the other hand, our secular world, also, gives us a day to recall those virtues, those qualities which make a man truly a “man”– for this is the original meaning of the word: “virtue.” The word “virtue,” itself, is derived from the Latin word for “man,” the word “vir.” But this word did not mean just any man. The word “vir” was restricted to those who exhibited the qualities of being a true gentleman, the qualities exhibited by the head of the household, the pater familis, the father of the household.
And so it is, that this weekend has been set aside by our secular culture in this country to honor fathers. But it is more than a day to celebrate merely being a male capable of producing offspring. Rather, it is a day to celebrate and acknowledge those virtues which are shown forth by all of us in our attempts to model for our children what it is to be a true person.
Today is the day to remind us that for a child to retain the God-given gifts of faith, fidelity and trust, our children need to experience faith, fidelity and trust
… in the parents who exhibit these qualities,
… in the families where these qualities are the center of family life,
… and, especially, in the fathers among us.
When a husband and wife enter into matrimony, as so many do during this month of June, they pledge one another their faith, fidelity and trust. They exchange these vows and are expected to live by them for the rest of their lives. They agree to share their love with one another through their children.
And when events conspire against them, they agree to forgive one another and to reconcile with those who have been hurt in the processes of daily living. This, indeed, is what is meant by faith. It is the trust one has that no matter what happens, each person will continue to be there for one another. To offer to one another
● their commitment, dedication, loyalty and confidence,
● their reliability and truthfulness in what they say and do.
● their mercy when errors occur and a just punishment when the error is significant
● and, finally, to offer one another their forgiveness, compassion and love.
Yes, the storms of life suddenly, without expectation, will arise. The winds and waves of disaster may attempt to sink us. It is then we realize there is, indeed, another person present in our boat with us. Although he may appear to be sleeping and to be unconcerned about our shared welfare, he is, indeed, fully awake and intimately aware of our needs.
He is the one we can continue to trust to be present with us. He does not need to ask: “Do you not yet have faith?” He already knows the answer.
● Yes, we have faith. We have trust. We recognize your commitment and dedication to our welfare, as we acknowledge and experience that same faith and trust in your Father, in our Father.
● And through our mutual faith and trust, we will help those who love us, and those whom we love, to experience those virtues which He has given us.
In this way, each one of us: male or female, husband, wife or child, can celebrate each and every day as Father’s Day – as we say: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen“
12th Sunday in Ordinary; June 21, 2009 (Fathers’ Day)
Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Cor 5:14-17; Mk 4:35-41