Faith alone saves us

YOU ARE GIVEN THE GIFT OF FAITH

Today we celebrate faith, yes we celebrate our faith in Jesus Chirst. The
gift of faith is given to all through the very sacrament of Baptism. As we
grow in the baptismal promises, our faith also increases in God our
Father.Once a man had a vision in which he was asked to go to a spiritual master
who would give him a precious stone. The man went to the spiritual
master and found the precious stone in a bag with other things. It looked
that master didn't give much important to it. when the man asked for it, the
master right away gave it to him. After few days, the man came to the
master returning the precious stone and said, "Because of this stone, I lost
my sleep. Because of this stone, I could not concentrate on life. Then he
asked the master, "please tell me the secret of your happiness?" the master
answered in one word, "faith".
Faith in God brings happiness and joy; it brings prosperity and life. It
moves mountains and does miracles and wonders.
Once a pious lady wanted to test her faith saying to herself, "I pray five
times a day, go to Church every day, I fast and do penance. Today I am
going to test my faith" And then she looked at a tree that was standing in
front of her house and said, "I want you to move from here to my backyard. The next day, she woke up early in the morning and opened the door and there the tree was standing at the same place. Nothing happened and then she said to herself, "I knew even before I went to bed that nothing would happen". Faith means spiritual transformation. Faith means believing. Coming to Church, receiving sacraments and even praying without faith will not bring any spiritual change in a person.
In todya's gospel, we meet with a woman who, even in her weakness and difficulties, even in her challenges and pain had a strong faith in Christ and came to him looking for mercy and compassion. Christ looked at her with kindness and love and said, "woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace".The woman had a surrendering faith; a faith that surpassed every human frailties and shame. Because of her faith, she experienced a new life in Christ.
Once a Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons."
Then few weeks later, someone wrote to the editor saying "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"When you are down to nothing… God is up to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment!
When we have faith, we begin to see things differently. we won't move mountains or uprood trees with our faith, all we do is live our life happily and meaningfully. So let us have faith and live our life. Amen.