Faith can move mountains, but don't be surprised if God hands you a shovel! (Unknown)
A famous advertising man was asked to speak to a group of clergymen about revitalizing their congregations. They hoped to use his media skills to advantage. He surprised them.
"If God has forsaken you, what can a poor advertising man do for you? Do you no longer understand, dear reverends, what actually gave that little group of apostles on the day of Pentecost such tremendous power that it was sufficient to transform the Western World? There was no advertising in the old sense. It was rather the influencing power of Faith that accomplished that miracle."
He went on to say, "Because you yourselves no longer feel the influencing power of faith within you, you try to substitute tactical cleverness for the faith of a strong soul. And when you do that, you sink ever deeper into the realm of no response." (from Sunday Sermons treasury of Illustrations, James F. Colaianni)
Do we no longer understand what actually gave that little group of apostles on the day of Pentecost such tremendous power that it was sufficient to transform the Western World?
Perhaps we no longer feel the influencing power of faith within us. Perhaps we try to substitute tactical cleverness for the faith of a strong soul.
Faith is the reason Pope Benedict proclaimed a Year of Faith and called a synod of the world's Catholic bishops this October to promote a new evangelization in the church. The Pope has said that families are central to the new evangelization, as parents hand on the faith to their children, and serve as faithful witnesses in the world.
It is faith "that guides us and allows us to think, act, interact, and even love, because we trust that there is love at the heart of the universe, and a providence that draws us to our ends" (Brian Caulfield, Fathers for Good editor).
What we need today is a hook of Faith, a way to catch the imaginations of the "faithful" as the apostles did on the first Pentecost. This requires love and a dedication as we have seen in the saints before us.
My parents had us "hook, line and sinker". Their selfless dedication to the family, through thick and thin, had us catching their faith. We were hooked.
I remember one agonizing decision my parents made one drought-riddled summer. Should they leave the farm and its debts and its drought? Try to move their family elsewhere? I saw the balancing effect of the roots in the farm faith community where their parents had prevailed.
And I was aware of the faith that carried us through that crisis and others: the daily prayers as a family - the rosary, the Angelus, meal prayers, and morning and night prayers.
The new call for you and me this October and in the coming year will be to grasp our Faith, to pray for Faith, to rediscover our Faith so that we can take the love of Jesus to our families, our fellow Christians and the world.
