With your grace everything is possible

Msgr. Michael Woster
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 2, 2022

I hear it all the time these days, this question. You probably do as well. Where is the world going? Imagine that someone came from the year 2273, some 150 years from now in the future, and arrived in New York City in a time machine. And suppose that person had a newspaper with them that contained no stories of violence, or poverty, or wars between the nations. No stories of abortion, genocide. No stories of immorality or corruption in government and societies. Suppose that newspaper from the future only had stories of love, peace, prosperity, and friendship. What would you likely say? Impossible! Totally unreal! It’s simply propaganda that they’re bringing and impress people in the twenty-first century.

In the gospel today Jesus is responding to his disciples request to increase their faith. His answer suggests that faith is not a thing of quantity but rather of quality. Either the disciples have faith, or they don’t. And if they do have it, even the seemingly most impossible thing becomes possible. 

My people, if we approach life with the attitude indeed with the belief that peace on earth is impossible, we will never achieve it. If we approach life with the attitude that, at the heart of it all, people are uncaring and selfish then we will all have societies that are uncaring and selfish. If we approach life with the attitude that nations are inherently violent and hostile, then we will continue to have nations that are violent and hostile to one another. 

Our dreams of a new and a better world are possible, not simply because we believe them possible but because God tells us they are possible. And Jesus gave us a way of life that can make them possible. The problems of  our world are with us not because of the absence of possibilities to solve them, but because of our lack of faith and especially our lack of love. 

In the Gospel today Jesus tells us if you had the faith even the size of a tiny mustard seed you could say this mulberry tree be uprooted and transplant yourself in the sea and it would obey you. 

My dear friends, the Gospel message this weekend is that in Christ’s grace, and especially in his love, all things are possible. And so, I offer this simple take away line that we can call to mind this coming week. Lord help me this week — not next month or not next year — help me this week to have faith that with your grace everything is possible.