The Gospel of Luke, chapter 7:50

Today’s gospel passage challenges us to examine our faith; to discover if we really cherish it and are prepared to put it into practice. “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven,” asserts the Lord.
Jesus always responded to those who approached Him with faith. He still does.
Faith is not an easy gift to accept. In his letter to Galatians, St. Paul makes it clear that faith may require taking a stand which is not always popular. St. Paul expresses amazement at those Christians who abandoned the true teaching of Christ for “another gospel.” The same thing is happening today. Faith makes demands on us and many people are not up to the challenge. They fall away.
Living the faith is a mighty challenge in today’s world. Faith can hardly be called the in-thing today. Faith that is based on the gospel of Christ, involves standards, values, attitudes, beliefs and ways of acting that are counter-culture. Living the faith can mean opposing the popular opinions and ethics of our contemporaries. But, living the faith also means living an authentic life, a life that is transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This gift is not given to us by God to be deposited in the misty recesses of the mind. It is something to be exercised and enjoyed, otherwise it will die. There are many ways in which faith is actualized.
Spiritual reading and meditation on the scriptures, for example, help to develop the right kind of thoughts in the minds of believers of all ages. These are ways to increase our knowledge of the faith.
Doing some service for the church or for someone in need help to foster the practice of the faith. For example, visiting the sick, the shut-ins and those who are alone in the world; giving a helping hand to those in need-the children, the elderly, the poor in our midst; performing a kind act at home, at school or at work. When you help another person in any of these ways you forget about your own problems. Such is the joy and reward of faith.
It is only by living our faith that God and others can respond to us. Faith is like a light, a spiritual light that must shine through what we say and do. This light cannot be left hidden, it must appear for all to see. Only then can we truly delight in it. The sinful woman who annointed Jesus in St. Lukes account of the event in chapter seven of the gospel, let her faith shine through. And, her faith saved her.
The person who listens to the words of scripture “and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock,” says the Lord. This is the faith that saves; this is the faith that imparts peace.

Fr. Hugh Duffy