Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus exhorts his disciples and us to exercise our faith. St. Paul tells us that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We see the world around us. And we can learn to understand it according to conventional categories—political, cultural, economic, etc. Christians don’t turn from the world that reason delivers.
But our primary orientation is not given by reason; it’s given by faith. This has nothing to do with irrationality or credulity. It has to do with an appreciation of God and the movement of God—in and through all of the conventional events perceived in the conventional manner.
What is God doing? Sometimes it is exceedingly hard to see. But we trust. It might happen slowly and in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, but God is always acting. From the smallest beginnings can come the accomplishment of God’s purpose.
God is working, though we can’t see it with our eyes. That’s why Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”