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Twenty-seventh Sunday

Increase Our Faith

In the Psalm, this weekend at Mass, we hear about a place named Massah and Meribah [strife] in the desert near Sinai where Moses struck the rock to provide water for his people; they lacked faith (Ex 17.7). Habukkuk reminds the people to be faithful so that one remains upright while in exile. Are we not in exile here? Saint Paul writes to fellow bishop Timothy encouraging him to remain faithful to sound teaching that comes from Christ and to guard this precious gift. What is Faith ? The Italian poet Dante (1265-1321), in the Divine Comedy wrote in ‘Paradise,’ questioned by St. Peter, ‘What is faith?’: Faith is “the proof of things not seen.” The anchor is a symbol of faith. Our faith hangs on the rock. The Rock is Kephas or Peter, the faith entrusted by Christ to the first pope.

The Catechism says: Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself.” CCC 1814