The Apostle said, increase, increase our faith.
They're listening to the words of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus
and perhaps found them a bit difficult in seeing the need of an increase of faith
to put them into practice.
And our Lord said, even if you had a small amount of faith,
you would work miracles, even great miracles.
And that's true with faith.
We can work miracles.
God will work them through us.
And those who don't have faith, they don't see any miracles.
They don't see anything.
There's nothing supernatural happening in their life
because nothing is happening supernatural to any great extent
because of their lack of faith.
Miracles don't happen amongst those who don't believe,
but many miracles happen amongst we who do believe.
But still, we need to strengthen our faith.
We need an increase in faith.
And we live a life of faith.
Our Catholic life, Christian life,
is a life of faith.
We should eat, drink, sleep, breathe our faith,
to live our faith.
And the more we do that, the more supernatural our life will be,
more meritorious our life will be,
more glorious, more fruitful, more beautiful,
more meaningful and purposeful.
And we'll have that hope for eternal life.
But our faith is,
faith is a firm conviction in what we don't see,
as St. Paul says.
So we're believing things that we don't see.
Why?
Because of the one who has taught us,
told us to believe these things,
Jesus Christ.
We are believing in Jesus Christ,
the person of Jesus Christ,
himself, and also all that he taught,
all his words.
We're believing, we're putting faith in that.
Even in the Old Testament,
when we believed the Moses and the patriarchs
and the prophets,
we believed them because they were teaching us about Jesus,
preparing us for our Lord.
And it was God who worked miracles through them
to attest to what they were saying
and what they were instructing the people to do.
So they had to put faith,
and God insisted,
God demanded that they believe
what the prophets and the patriarchs
taught.
And again, the miracles,
they were trustworthy,
they were believable,
they had credibility to them.
But our Lord Jesus Christ
is the one man who we must believe in the most
because he is the God-man.
He is God and man at the same time,
teaching us everything we need to know
about the unseen world,
about what is coming in the next life,
and also what is in our midst,
the presence of God in our midst today.
And who are we?
We are living in the midst of a spiritual world.
We have a spirit in our own body.
We live in the midst of the angels and saints
who are a cloud of witnesses in our company.
The angels who are all around us
keeping the created world in existence
and functioning the way God wants us to.
God wants it through their power
that God gives them.
Our Lady and our Lord,
even God is in our midst,
even in our hearts and our souls
in the state of baptism.
All this is unseen,
and yet we believe it
because Jesus taught it,
because he is believable.
And again, the reasons why
we believe what Jesus taught.
We didn't, you know, children,
and we are all children, should be,
believe everything the parents tell them
because they trust their parents,
because the parents are good to them,
and they believe them.
And they're believable,
but we don't believe everything that people tell us.
We believe only those who are believable
and give us proof for what they tell us.
And our Lord gave us the most astounding proof
in his personal life and his person,
and then the miracles and the great,
miracles he did,
and then in the resurrection.
All of that is proof to us
of everything that he taught
and what we are looking forward to,
what our hope is,
what are the promises that we live by,
all in Jesus Christ.
And that whole body of knowledge
that Jesus has given us,
the information he gives us
because he had first-hand knowledge of it all
because he is God,
in the flesh,
telling us everything's certain,
that he knows for certain.
And everything we have in our Catholic faith,
we know for certain,
without any hint of doubt.
The church teaches infallibly.
And we believe the church, too,
because of the credibility of the church,
because it is founded on Peter,
it is founded on Jesus Christ,
and is continually guided by the Holy Spirit.
So our faith in the church,
the church is rock solid, too,
as it is in Jesus Christ,
the church which is the body of Christ.
But we look at our faith
and all that we believe,
and we're astounded at the wisdom
of the Catholic church.
You ever read the documents of the church,
the documents that come from the councils
and from the popes?
They're amazingly brilliant
and wise and prophetic
for every time of the church.
And none of them contradicts
each other.
They're all developments
of this one seed of truth
that Jesus gave us in the beginning
and continues to make grow and develop
and make us understand more.
But it's a whole body of knowledge.
Look at all the volumes of wisdom
that come from the pen of the doctors
of the church through the centuries.
This faith is not just, you know,
these static things that exist
that we don't see,
but it's a living faith,
and a very intricate and deep,
and will never plumb the depth
of our Catholic faith
and all that the church teaches us
and that the saints continue to uncover
and develop in their teachings.
You know, look at St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Bonaventure, St. Augustine,
and all the volumes and volumes
of the teachings of the doctors of the church
and of the popes.
All of this,
and it will continue to grow
and develop our understanding,
deeper understanding,
and we'll never get to the depths
of our faith.
So our faith is rich and deep
and beautiful,
and because our faith is Jesus Christ,
he is God himself,
and we can never penetrate
the depths of God, of course.
But we want to,
but we need to deepen our faith,
and realize, too,
that our faith,
although it is full of information
and knowledge that we need to grow in
to know God and to love him,
but our faith is especially a person,
a relationship with Jesus Christ,
with all that comprises our faith,
our saints and our lady and the angels,
and our relationship,
this family relationship,
it's a relationship with an unseen world of God,
Mary, the angels and saints.
We don't see them,
but we live in a relationship with them still
in our life of prayer and meditation
and reflection and petition
and constant communication
and conversation with them.
This is our faith.
This is the life of our faith,
a deep and rich relationship of love
with these unseen beings
who are very real,
who are very real to us
and who communicate to us
and give us grace.
They give us.
It's a give and take.
Again, it's not a static things that are unseen
that one day we will see,
but we are receiving now.
We are giving our love and our petitions
and our attention to the unseen world,
to God, to Mary and the saints,
but we're also receiving,
receiving grace and help and strength
and their protection
and their company in this world.
This is the whole fullness of our faith.
It's knowledge, but also relationship,
love, and a depth to it,
which we need to increase
and pray to our Lord as the apostles did,
increase our faith
so that we can put into practice
all the beautiful teachings and wisdom,
the wisdom of Jesus Christ
and commandments of Jesus Christ,
which we must live
in order to inherit the promises
that we are given by our Lord in our faith.
So let us exercise our faith
and make it stronger and stronger
so that we live as if we are seeing
and realize, too,
that we can weaken in our faith.
We can even lose our faith
no matter how.
How far advanced we are in our faith
if we are negligent
and we don't continue to deepen our faith
and make it grow,
then we can wane
and even lose our faith.
The bigger they are,
the harder they fall.
So if you are big in your faith,
hold on to it
and make it grow more and more
until your last breath
and then find the reward.
And again, fear,
fear,
waning in your faith
or in even losing it
through negligence.
So let us deepen our faith
through those means of our faith,
the sacraments,
the sacraments of faith
where Jesus Christ gives us so many graces
to strengthen our faith
and to live in his love
and to live our faith
through continual and constant prayer.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.