Let’s think about our faith.

Indeed many of you have heard or read about the establishment of a monastery of Carmelite sisters next to the concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland. Their mission was to pray to God for all those killed in this concentration camp during the Second World War. This is a serious, significant, and necessary matter for us believers. But not for everyone. Because some were annoyed by this place where the Carmelite sisters prayed and caused prayedous inconveniences to the sisters, they say: Heaven was closed over Auschwitz! God was not there then! He was silent! He allowed it! He committed and did not help! And that’s why we don’t even need these nuns there now.

The evangelist Luke points out in today’s Gospel the request of the apostles: “Give us more faith!” (Lk 17:5). And the answer of Jesus is equally interesting: “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed and said to this mulberry tree: Be plucked up with take root and plant yourself in the sea, she would obey you” (Luke 17:6). The Gospel shows us how we should personally approach this when it advises us to say: “We are unprofitable servants; we did what we had to do”(Luke 17:10). The existence of suffering and injustice in the world is as sure as the sun rising in the morning. Even the Lord Jesus suffered a terrible and shameful death on the cross. The apostles suffered persecution. The only exception was Saint John, who did not die a martyr’s death but was also tortured and exiled to the island of Patmos. The end of the apostles was terrible. Let’s remember Peter’s death. In his novel Quo Vadis, which was awarded the therapist Prize, writer Henryk Sienkiewicz writes how Peter walks up one of the Vatican hills. This older gray man does not carry a cross but walks beside him. People around him say that he is leaving to see the Lord. Peter takes one last look at Rome and, at the hour of his death,h gives his blessing to the city and the world. The first believers survived cruel and brutal persecution until the Edict of Milan in 313 when they got their freedom.

The Church also suffered in the following years; when the Orthodox Church was established in the East in 1054, there was a split between East and West. Not even five centuries will pass, and another pain for the Church! The division in the West. The reformation movement brings another break. The Anglican Church was founded,  led by King Henry VIII. and the Directioners of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin. In addition, freedom of belief was guaranteed and emphasized. The Church’s release was not and is not because priests and believers continue to suffer and are persecuted worldwide. From history, let’s remember Wenceslaus, John of Nepomuk, the Košice Martyrs, Bishop Metodo, his companions, and others. But also in the world – Joan of Arc, Vojtech, Stanislav, Pavol Miki, and his companions, Karol Lwanda, Thomas Morus, Maximilán Kolbe. The Church has elevated many to the altar as blessed or saints, but it is also an incalculable number of unknowns,

What about the millions who died in concentration camps under Hitler and Stalin? Let’s not be surprised that a person came to the point of desperate questions: Why did God allow this? Why does he not help his faithful? Let us include the answer to these fundamental questions of our existence in the readings from the Holy Scrip that we have just read. When we observe the world surrounding us, we make more than one remark that God is silent about wrongs, persecution, and oppression: “Lord, we plead with you, and you do not hear us? We cry to you, there is untruth and injustice, and you do not help? Why do you look passively? Behold, violence and injustice are before me; disputes and passions arise.”

After these reproaches to God, the prophet Habakkuk gives a clear answer: The Lord said to me: “Write the vision clearly on the board so that it can be read fluently.” The vision is still for a certspecifice, but hasten to the end and does not disappoint; if he moves away, wait for him because he will surely come and not miss. Behold, he puffs himself up, in whom the soul is not upright, but the righteous will live because of his faithfulness” (Hab 2,2-4). When we read the Letter of the apostle Paul to Timothy, we find that the apostle gives an even more precise answer to our questions: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lorr of me, his prisoner, but suffer with me for the gospel, strengthened by the power of God” (2 Tim 1:8). The Lord Jesus wants us to bear witness to him and share in the difficulties and inconveniences we endure for the sake of the gospel. Holy Father John Paul II. wrote an apostolic letter on the meaning of Christian suffering. He notes that when we connect our suffering with Christ’s, this suffering takes on a new character, value, purpose, and value.

Yes, whoever suffers in union with Christ, it is faith that gives him hope and strength;
that his suffering is not foolishness,
that it makes sense,
that it is worth suffering with Christ,
and that is necessary for our salvation.

For a non-believer, suffering is nonsense, and he often despairs. For the believer, every suffering is of great value and grace if he suffers in union with Christ. Lord Jesus suffered for man and man. Every person, therefore, participates in their redemption. Thus, the Lord Jesus calls everyone to join in the suffering he endures because our rescue was born through this suffering. Throughout our lives, we should ask God for deep faith and fulfill the tasks that the Lord gives us. In time, we will surely understand the wisdom of his plans, that he did not wish us harm when he inflicted suffering, pain, persecution and pe, and perhaps even death on us. We realize that without faith, we cannot understand this deep meaning of our suffering and co-redemption with Christ. And it was for this faith that the apostles begged, and we should also pray.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says that there are two kinds of faith. One type of faith refers to the acceptance of church truths, and the other is the gift of the love of the Lord Jesus.
Cyril writes: “The faith that the Holy Spirit bestows as a gift of love does not only concern the truths of the Church, but also about superhuman things. Whoever possesses faith of the second kind and says to this mulberry tree: Be uprooted and planted in the sea; she will obey you. He who speaks in faith, believing that it will come to pass and does not doubt in his heart, will receive this love.” The words of the Lord Jesus apply to this kind of faith: “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed…” (Luke 17:6). As we know, a grain of mustard seed is tiny, but it has incredible power because it will grow into a big bushy one. Tree. Likewise, faith in the soul can do very great things in a short time. A soul illuminated by faith in God will still feel and experience the infinity of God’s love here on earth. To have this faith – the belief in God that God gives and does superhuman things – we must strive for it.

This faith, about which St. Lukáš and Cyril of Jerusalem, causes us not to lose our faith because of the sufferings inflicted on us or the spreading injustice. Therefore, we ask: Lord, strengthen our faith! Those who have faith can look at worldwide suffering and pain so that it enriches them and does not break them. Let us not be surprised because some did not understand the prayers and contemplative life of the Carmelite sisters near the concentration camp. We cannot imagine life without faith. The student must believe the teacher that two and two are four. The patient must trust the doctor, the son, the father, and the cooking the recipe. Let’s also consider our faith and recognize its advantages, a wan outstandingntribution to personal and social life.