Homily for Oct 5, 2025. – Fr. Joe Tedesco OCSO
Hab: 1: 2-3, 2:2-4. 2 Tim 1: 6- 8, 13 – 14. Luke 17: 5 – 10
What a word Jesus gives us today. Do what you are supposed to do in your life. For us that is to live in faith. What is this faith we seek to live where life finds us? It is all that Jesus revealed to us. The powerful love God has for us. That Jesus showed us in his total love of the Father. Jesus did what he asks of us today. Act in faith and love.
The Old Testament reading, from the Prophet Habakkuk, really helps us out. He says hold on to your vision. How do you see yourself? Your sense of self. Are you who you want to be? Who is Christ calling you to be? Serious questions for us any day but today even more so as we seek to transform the world into Christ. There is an urgency it feels like for us to be cognizant of our sense of self so to fulfill our place in the Body of Christ.
It’s possible because our faith brings us in communion with God’s love, God’s light and truth that we experience in Jesus. Our life of Prayer, of Eucharist, brings us into this very life. And sustains us in our work.
Right now, the whole world is in turmoil because the foundations of our life together on this earth are in jeopardy. Our values as citizens must be formed from our moral values. For us, our moral values are from Jesus who points out to us in the gospels the greatest commandment.
Love God and your neighbor as yourself. This makes sense, because we have come to understand that God is love. So, there is our way forward.
We find our way forward because our values answer the question of the meaning of life. Unity with the creator, unity with all people who are called to be the human community.
We use our values to find the answers to the problems of our world. How do we reduce the amount of suffering and injustice in the world? How do we find meaning in life.?
Our faith and our good human values answer the questions of our world. Be the people of God and find peace. Be a people who belong to one another. Be a witness to these values that can reshape the human community into the people God has intended us to be.
St. Paul to Timothy, gives us the direction: He says stir into flame the gift of God you have through the imposition of hands, that is the anointing we received at Baptism and at confirmation. Jesus is the gift of God to us. Live Christ who calls us to himself. We are one in him. And we have his spirit. Stir it up. Hold on to the grace given every day God loving you. Calling you, inviting you into a deeper life with Him.
Jesus has come to us with love, mercy and forgiveness – all revealing the fullness of the Father’s life and love to us by Christ’s great love of the Father. Giving his life for us so that we now can live in this fullness. We need to hear this basic truth that God is with us and in us.
We can act in every way out of this truth of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness. Pope Leo just gave us a great image to hold on to: He said: we respond to the challenges of life with bridges of love. This very love of Christ. Like the parable of Jesus today, we are the servants. We seek to be faithful, doing what is expected of us. Promoting harmony and unity of purpose.
Yes, we are the servants of the Lord. It’s never too late, because we have Jesus and his Spirit.
Let us stir his power into flame and ignite the world with the love of God.
