Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
Father Dan Schomaker
Guest
In the Gospel for this weekend, the apostles ask the Lord to: “Increase our faith.” I think, along with many others, that there is a great misunderstanding in today’s culture about what faith is and what it is not. Let’s start with the negative. Faith is not a blind belief, it is not a superstition, a credulity, naivete, gullibility nor is it an irrationality.
What it is, as defined by the Letter to the Hebrews, is: “…the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”
If we break down that definition, we see that the use of our human reason and intellect is integral and necessary for faith. “Realization” is the awareness through thought, study, contemplation, examination, etc. that something is real. “Evidence” is the proof of that thought, study, examination, etc. Synonyms include clear, apparent and obvious.
So, faith can be the obvious proof of invisible realities that have become known in the mind through the use of human reason and experienced in the heart because of a longing for that which is hoped. In the case of God, that hope is Heaven!
St. Thomas Aquinas provides the Church with five (5) proofs of God’s existence. I’ll share just one: The Unmoved Mover. He would argue that all of creation is in some form of motion or change. Nothing can move itself; it is always acted upon by an outside force. He argues that there cannot be an infinite chain of movers – those outside forces which cause the motion or change. There must be an initial mover who is unmoved. This unmoved mover we Christians call God. As a thought process, this invisible reality becomes clear to the mind through the use of reason!
If we desire to have an increase in faith like the apostles, then we have to start using our minds and our reason as we seek belief. St. Augustine would say: “do not seek to understand that you may believe, but seek to believe that you may understand.” Belief must come first!
Let’s give ourselves over to the faith of the Church, the faith into which we were all baptized… one that is pure and perfect. Then we can watch an exposition of growth, just like the tiny mustard seed becomes the greatest of bushes.
Father Daniel Schomaker is pastor, Blessed Sacrament Parish, Ft. Mitchell and director, Office of Worship and Liturgy for the Diocese of Covington, Ky.
