MY FAITH, MY Wi-Fi

HOMILY FOR THE 27^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Faith deals with - and faith requires - constant contact and connection with God. When this connection is strong, a person of faith can go through a furnace of trials without getting burnt. Walter Ciszek spent fifteen years in forced-labour camps in Siberia. Throughout those years, he belonged to the lowest of the low, doing the dirtiest work, digging foundations by hand, carving them out with picks and shovels, digging long sewer trenches through the frozen ground, loading and unloading heavy construction materials with his bare hands, crawling through tunnels in damp, dark mines where death was only one slip away. What was it that kept Walter Ciszek going? This is what he said: “Men died in the camp, especially when they gave up hope. But I trusted in God, and so I never felt abandoned or without hope. I owe my survival to my faith in God.” Such faith-related stories of survival abound; where a person’s survival is on the line, faith strengthens.

Each of the three readings today has something important to say about faith. The First Reading (Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4) is an account of how faith can open our eyes to a new vision of life, especially when life confronts us with excruciating challenges. The prophet Habakkuk expressed his worries about the apparent silence of God in the face of oppression, injustice, tyranny, outrage, violence and discord. The prophet seemed to be asking: ‘are you going to let all these evils continue, and yet you still claim to be God?’ And God’s answer led him to the clear understanding that evil will never prevail over good. The faith of Habakkuk led him to go beyond the ordinary experience of suffering to the temporality of evil. And at the end, he discovered that it was only faith that could help an upright person to live on. 

The second Reading (2 Tim. 1: 6-8.13-14) is an encouragement to keep the flame of faith burning. Paul urges Timothy never to slack in his faith and love for Christ Jesus. Faith here could connote the idea of ‘fidelity’. A Christian is someone who is ever true and loyal to his/her faith, never ashamed to show his/her identity as a Christian, and who never loses his/her confidence in God.

In the Gospel Reading (Luke 17:5-10), the Apostles - realising how weak their faith was, too weak ever to live the way Jesus was outlining - they asked the Lord to increase their faith. The Lord’s example of the sycamine (or mulberry) tree is helpful in the sense that the sycamine is a relatively large tree with an extensive root system. It would be difficult not only to uproot this tree, but also to grow it in salt water. If, then, this tree could indeed be moved by faith, then it follows that genuine faith can bring about desirable but unexpected outcomes. This genuine faith grows and flourishes with obedience. We are servants, servants who know that to obey God is a duty rather than an option. The gifts of faith are not meant to make us prideful, but to serve to foster and promote the will of God on earth.  

Faith is sustained and increased by maintaining a connection. Faith is very much like Wi-Fi. The closer the device is to the hub, the stronger and faster the connectivity becomes. Similarly, the closer you are to the source of faith (which is God), the stronger your faith becomes. To remain strong, connect to the divine Wi-Fi. Wireless Fidelity helps the device to connect to the internet and thereafter to upload and download files to/from the device. This is how divine fidelity - faith - helps us to access God, to upload our petitions and praise to Him, and to download His superabundant gifts. And again, in order to browse, you must connect to Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi helps to create connections between devices within range of its connectivity. Similarly, this is how faith both connects us to other people, and also assists us to share with each other and to encourage each other. And so, to chat, connect to your divine Wi-Fi.  But beware! Wi-Fi can be prone to attack when anyone who is within range of a network and who has access to the wireless network interface controller goes rogue! This danger is why we must continually encourage one another (cf. 1 Thess. 4:18) and, as Jesus did for Peter, pray for one another that our faith might not fail (Luke 22:32). I pray that all of us may be gifted with high connectivity of faith as the new week blossoms. God bless you.