Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
The curious thing that we come to read in the Gospel today
is that the Omnipotent God, the Lord who created heaven and earth,
the one who worked many miracles throughout salvation history since the beginning of time,
was not able to work a miracle in his own hometown.
And the reason he was not able to work this miracle, as a matter of curiosity,
is the fact that they did not have faith.
Now we may be able to say that they had,
some kind of faith, because they probably believed in God.
That's the reason why they were in the synagogue that day.
They believed that he existed, that he created everything.
But there was a certain faith that our Lord was asking of them
that they had not reached yet.
There was a certain faith that he required of them, as he does of us,
that goes beyond just believing in God,
goes beyond believing that he created everything, that's the start of it,
but, and that's one of the bases of our faith,
but the thing is that he wanted them to have the faith that can move mountains,
the faith that believes that though he appeared to be only a man,
he was truly God.
And the people in the synagogue, they marveled at his words,
they understood that he was speaking things that could only really come from God,
but,
but,
they did not come to that faith that our Lord required,
and that is why the omnipotent God was not able to work a miracle,
because he wanted them to, first of all, have that faith,
that faith that can move mountains,
that faith that he asked his apostles to have.
And this faith should have,
or the miracles and the prophecies that our Lord,
the work should have enlightened them to come to a realization
that he was more than just a man,
that this, that he was actually God amongst them.
And that is why He, when he read that Scripture passage,
he said that it was fulfilled in their hearing,
because when Saint John the Baptist sent
his delegation to our Lord to find out if he was truly the Messiah,
those were the reasons
that our Lord sent him to remain faithful to Jesus.
that our Lord gave for a belief in him,
for a faith in his divine messianic mission.
And he told the delegation to go back to John
and tell him what they had heard.
And what they had heard and saw
was that the blind were able to see,
the sick were cured,
and sinners came back to repentance.
And this was enough for St. John the Baptist
to know that he was truly the Messiah.
And St. Gregory the Great,
whose memorial we celebrate today,
was a man of this faith.
He was a man who was enlightened by this faith
that our Lord required and requires
for us to live.
Of all of us.
He was one who was gifted
with the ability to be a great administrator.
He was also gifted in many other ways.
From his father, he received that natural gift
of administration.
And that, in turn, was aided by the sanctity
that he achieved through his great faith.
He, at once, was a cardinal, an abbot.
He later became the supreme pontiff.
He was also the prefect of Rome
at the age of 30.
He did many great things,
which merit the title of Gregory the Great.
And he was able to work many miracles.
But the first miracle that he worked
was through the grace of God.
The grace of God was the great sanctity
he achieved through his faith.
And he guided the church
through many trials and tribulations.
He guided the church in decadent times.
He was able to turn away foreign invaders,
which were going to sack Rome.
In his period of administration,
Rome had been sacked four times
in 20 years.
And St. Gregory the Great would even ride out
of the city of Rome outside the walls
and confront those invaders,
working out peace treaties with them.
And the people marveled at his wisdom,
at his prudence, at his great sanctity.
He was the one who first sent missionaries to England.
He was the one who started the Gregorian church,
and he was the first one to write the Gregorian chant.
And that is the reason why we have it's given that name,
Gregorian chant.
There are many other things that he did.
He was able to write many things,
especially on the duties and the responsibilities of bishops.
He wrote a commentary on scripture,
on the book of Job.
And he did many other things to merit the title of great.
But he was able to do these things,
despite his own sicknesses,
his own trials and sufferings,
and the sufferings of those around him.
He was able to do all these great wonders
because of the fact that he had a great faith.
That in his weakness,
God was able to work many great things.
Those defects that usually come with the concupiscence
as a result,
as a result of original sin,
were eradicated in him because of his great faith.
He was able to do these things
because our Lord wanted to show his power
working through St. Gregory's weaknesses.
And we too must come to that great faith
if we are to work miracles in our lives,
if our Lord,
we want our Lord to work miracles through us
as his great instruments.
If we come to this faith,
we will be able to move mountains.
Now, one of the things that we must understand
is that our Lord gives us reason for this faith.
Our Lord showed the people
when he was walking amongst them
that he was the Messiah.
That he was not just a man,
but he was also God.
The blind were made to see.
The sick were cured.
These were the reasons our Lord,
this was the way in which our Lord
enlightened the reason
in order that he would be able to enlighten them by faith.
So there is two ways in which
we can come to the light of truth.
First of all,
through our reason.
And then by faith.
And they both work together.
So our Lord wants us to come
to a truth about him
and about all things that concern him
through the light of reason,
but also through the light of faith.
And the things that we see
in the people at the time of our Lord
giving his discourse,
those sins of curiosity,
stubbornness,
those things against the light of truth,
curiosity, stubbornness, and pride.
Our Lord wanted to heal in them
because he was,
well, for the very reason
that he wanted them to come to a great sanctity.
He wanted them to have that faith
that could move mountains.
And if we pray to our Lord,
we will have that disposition
that they did not have.
They were marveling at our Lord,
at the appealing discourse
that came from his mouth,
but they did not act on it.
They marveled more out of curiosity
than anything else.
But this was also a defect.
And our Lord wanted to
cure and heal that defect in them,
but they refused because of their pride.
All these things were sins
against the light of truth.
And because of this,
they lacked the very thing
that St. Paul wished for his hearers,
that they would hear the message of truth.
And this message of truth
would bring them to a great faith.
And this great faith
would give birth in them
to a great hope,
so they would be consoled
in their trials and their sufferings,
that they would be enlightened
to the things of God
and to God himself.
So we pray to our Lord
and to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
who is the mother of faith,
because she is the mother
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray to them,
asking them to give us
the wisdom, the prudence,
the light of truth
that our Lord wants us to have
in order to become great saints
and to fulfill our mission
in this life
that our Lord has given us
to fulfill.
And that way,
we too, in the eyes of God,
will be considered great,
as St. Gregory the Great
was in the eyes of God
and of those whom he lived with
during his time.