According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church our faith lived out in daily life is “to seek and respond to the love of God, to live out the love of God towards our neighbors including those closest to us, and to spread the love and peace to counter the evil influences of the world.”

For the Church, the active and full participation of the faithful in the Mass is our ultimate expression of faith. But there are indeed other expressions of the faith. For some, faith is realized in devout, ritualistic prayer. For others, faith is expressed meditatively by communing with God in deep spiritualty perhaps in the great outdoors on a mountain top or before the rolling waves of the sea; faith may be expressed in a compassionate moment listening to someone in need or in the presence of an understanding heart offering forgiveness. Faith is also expressed through the social action of the Church—feeding the hungry, seeking justice for the oppressed, sheltering the homeless, and in defending the rights and dignity of the unborn—as well as countless other ways.

And faith is expressed by the community of believers, the Mystical Body of Christ, in one’s supporting actions which encourage another’s active participation in-and-through the Church. This may be evidenced in the family by teaching a young child to give thanks to God at the meal with Grace or it may be at bedtime prayers when we ask God to watch over those whom we love, and it can be expressed in seeking peace around the dinner table after a lively conversation moments before. Faith is expressed in the Church family through our support—via prayer, action and finance—of those in our community who are doing the work Christ in caring for our
neighbors in need. Last Saturday and Sunday in particular, our parish family amazingly accomplished that kind of expressed faith here at Saint Catherine of Siena:

I announced in the bulletin and at all the Masses that our Advent Giving Tree program raised more than $78,000 for our Neighbors in Need fund and for the Knights of Malta Mobile House of Care. Here the faith filled people of this parish recognize the good works of those two ministries and wanted to support that action with their own faith, thereby being a truly Universal Church.

Also last weekend our parish supported the ever-growing faith of our youth—in the midst of a Mission Trip auction, a bake sale and a second collection—coming out in droves to buy baked goods, bid on auction items or donate via the basket. Not only is this faith-filled support practical—by enabling the youth to fulfill their mission trip—but it also is spiritually fulfilling by reaffirming their faith and encouraging them to be the
Church now.

In the Catholic ritual of Baptism, there are prayers at the end of the rite offered over the mother and father in which the Church refers sees them as the first and best of teachers to their children, as guides, in faith by what they say and do: that faith is taught and passed on by our parents’ words and deeds.

Whatever the mode of expression of one’s faith, what is key is that faith is indeed expressed. While the Catholic Church offers different conduits to express one’s faith we all must recognized that true faith is always lived out.

The gospel on this fifth weekend in Ordinary Time offers two examples—light and salt—to illustrate our own connection to Christ as His Disciples and our distinct mission given by Him. It illustrates as well how when we imitate Christ in the world by way of compassion and mercy, we diffuse Christ’s very self into the world. The analogy about adding salt to enhance or preserve food or adding light to eliminate the darkness in today’s gospel, what we are talking about are gifts of God dispersed in and through our actions—motivated by faith—our
cooperation in building up the Kingdom of God in the here-and-now. As we soon approach Lent and then thereafter Easter, the Great Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday begins in a darkened church, and from the singularly blessed and holy light of the Easter Candle, the church bursts into light piercing the darkness of the night and bringing forth the shared light of Christ to our own individual candles. Soon the church is ablaze in light, given by Christ (read “faith”) and diffusing the darkness through our participation.

Our faith is alive because of people like you: believers who actually live their faith in daily activities of caring compassion, holy forgiveness, and practical answers to very worldly needs that may only be answered in faith. As the first and second reading note: ““If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power…” (Is. 58; 1 Cor. 2)

I THANK and CONGRATULATE the people of this great parish for all of the many beautiful ways you truly express your faith in Christ!