In today's Gospel, our Lord is teaching us of the necessity of faith in order to do good,
and he's teaching us that it is not any faith, for many have faith indeed.
In a certain sense, it can be said that the devil has faith, but he does not have supernatural faith.
He does not have faith as a gift from Almighty God, and our Lord tells us the power of such a faith.
For he tells us, if our faith is just the size of a mustard seed, then we are able to say to the mulberry tree,
be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey us.
And so, this faith is a power that Christ wishes to give each and every soul in order that they may persevere in the life of grace
and ultimately to attain union with him in the life of heaven for all eternity.
And indeed, it is faith that is the cause of the problems in the modern world, or rather, shall we say, a lack of faith.
Today, we celebrate in honor of Pope who had great and extreme faith, Pope Leo the Great,
and perhaps the greatest of his sayings was,
Christian, always be aware of the dignity with which you are imbued.
That dignity is first given to us when we are clothed with faith, hope, and charity in our baptisms,
and when each and every one of us, by cooperating in the sacramental life, constantly grows in faith.
That is, the mustard seed we received in baptism continues to grow
because we continue to love Christ more and more each day.
And so, we are able to say to the mulberry tree,
And so, we are to do all those things that our Lord told us previous in the gospel.
We are to rebuke our brothers if we find them in sin, but we must, as it were, have one goal in mind.
We simply must not rebuke for rebuke's sake, but we must rebuke in order that souls may come to possess faith.
And so, we know full well that faith is given to those who ask in humility.
It is a free gift given by Almighty God.
And it is given to those who ask Him humbly and in humility.
And so, in this day and age, we must pray constantly that the faith that we have received in our baptisms
and sustained by the sacramental life continues to grow,
for we need a deep faith in a world that is faithless.
And the deeper our faith is, the more extraordinary works we will do for Almighty God.
And so, let us always keep in mind those words of St. Leo the Great,
to be aware of the dignity.
We have received, and the faith we have received, not merely as a product of our own doings,
but as a free gift given to Almighty God.
For that is the difference between the faith of Satan and the faith of the true believer,
that he believes because he understands that that deep faith that can move the mulberry tree
is a faith given to him by Almighty God.
And it is not a product in any way of his intelligence, no matter how small or no matter how profound.
And our Lord tells us that if we have such a faith, we are able to move a mulberry bush.
And we must ask, what is he referring to in this?
He is referring to the power of his cross, according to some of the doctors and fathers.
For the mulberry tree, when it brings forth its fruit, that fruit turns, as it were, to a bright red
and almost looks like a droplet of blood.
And so, if we have true faith, we are able to bring the power of the cross even into the depths of the sea.
That is?
Where sin abounds, we are able to root it and drive that sin out.
And so, let us always be profoundly aware of the gift of our faith,
and that even a small amount of faith is able to bring the power of Christ's cross,
the power of the death of the Son of God, to the most hardened of all sinners.
And let us always and everywhere first begin by accusing ourselves of our own sins,
so that truly repentant...
Truly grateful to Almighty God for looking upon us with mercy when we did not, as it were, when we were not his friends.
Let us always be aware of this great gift that he has given us,
but that he has given us this gift for a purpose,
so that we may serve him, that we may serve him in fear and trembling,
that we may bring the power of his cross to all corners of the world,
so that all souls may see in the cross of Christ the love of the incarnate word for us all.
Pope St. Leo the Great was noted for his preaching on the Incarnation
and the great gift that it was to humanity that the Son of God loved us so much,
that the Father loved us so much, that he would send forth that only Son
in order that he would take our humanity, and on the cross he would elevate it to its highest possible form of love.
And so, it is that love that we are to strive for.
It is that which we are to put our faith in.
And our Lord tells us very clearly that...
that the cross is always the crux.
We are able to separate the supernatural lovers of God
from merely those who profess a belief in Almighty God,
but do not show forth because the cross is either a scandal to them as it was with the Chosen People,
or absurdity as it was with the Gentiles.
And we have a form of both in our present society and our present age,
for it is truly becoming another pagan age.
And so the cross is always considered a form of love,
considered absurdity in a world that pursues pleasure and it is always considered absurd
by those people who would seek to acquire power in order that they may lord it over others and so
our Lord tells us by our faith we are not to lord it over others but we are to strive by our
sufferings by our sacrifices by our faith to draw all souls to the kingdom of God so that each and
every one begins with the mustard seed of faith that alone is powerful enough to move the
mulberry bush and so how much greater if we grow in faith is the power that we are to exercise
but we must not exercise that power according to our own pleasures and our own whims but we must
exercise it always and everywhere in the manner that Christ exercised his power and his authority
over all souls that is to draw them to the love of Jesus Christ
and to draw them to the love of the Holy Spirit and to draw them to the love of the Holy Spirit
and to draw them to the love of the Holy Spirit and to draw them to the love of the Holy Spirit
them to the love of Jesus Christ crucified. And this was the love that burned in the heart of
the mother of God. This was her profound and deep faith that when she received the child as an infant
in her womb, she did so knowing that one day she would sacrifice that child and that she would
sacrifice that child for the sake of the world. And so let us always and everywhere strive to
deepen our faith in Christ crucified so that we too may be willing to sacrifice ourselves
for the sake of this world so that all souls may come to know as it may come to know and to love
that faith which we now possess, that holy Roman Catholic faith. And so let us defend it as our
Lord tells us and everywhere we see it rebuked, but let us always remember to defend it for the
sake that the ones who rebuke it, the ones who attack it, repent of their assault on the sacred
humanity of Christ in his mystical body and then repentant.
They too become followers of Christ crucified so that their faith may constantly grow so that
evil is always and everywhere on the retreat being driven out of our society and of all societies
so that it can be replaced by that profound faith that always and everywhere seeks to enshrine and
to love the sacred heart of Jesus in the immaculate heart of his most and holy mother, Mary, our mother
in faith and our mother in the Christian life and the one who seeks.
At the end of time to give us that final grace by which we are willing to give up our lives no matter
how the Lord tells us we must give so, whether it be through suffering, whether it be through
martyrdom or whatever manner he has chosen, that we give our lives up in complete indifference to it,
that we give it up out of love for him in gratitude for the faith we have received so that at that
moment that faith will disappear because it will be replaced by the direct division of
God for all eternity in heaven.
Sanctus Sanctus