Homily: Friday, August 8, 2025 Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Faith -Generations)

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 “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before?”

Have you heard the hymn “Faith of Our Fathers” before?

I have heard it many times before, but only when I heard it again a few months ago during the Iowa Catholic Radio event, did it move me so very deeply. The lyrics struck me to realize how great the gift of faith is, that was passed down to me by my parents, my grandparents, my great grandparents, through many, many, generations before me, from the days of old.

God, in a wonderful and mysterious way, guided the transmission of faith from one generation to the next. Yes, some may fall away, but God, in His mercy, often bring them back. If not in one generation, it would be in the next.

Our faith has a long history, rich and profound, when we see clearly how God is present and the Holy Spirit active in accompanying humanity through its life.

I love history and enjoy studying stories from the past. I found especially fascinating the history of our diocese and the parishes. I believe it is so important to know the history of the Church: her beginnings, trials, dark times, victories, and glorious days, and above all, to see God’s presence working His wonders through these happenings over the centuries.

It is simply awesome to realize that the very same God who led the Israelites out of Egypt through the wilderness and spoke to the prophets and Kings in the days of old, is the same God who is now with us in the church today.

Years have passed, times have changed, generations have gone, but the same God remains, and will continue to reach out to our future generations, future world.

“Ask now of the days of old”, to know and understand what has passed, so that we can understand better what is happening today.

As we look back at how God worked in the lives of those who came before us, we learn to see how God is also working in our lives now.

Just as they have trusted and revered God, let us also follow Him with the same trust and love. He who loved and cared for our ancestors will continue to love and care for us. 

“This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.”

Indeed, there is no other. This is the same one and only God who loves us before we were even born, whom we will meet face to face at the end of our lives. Let us love and adore Him, with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind.

Amen.


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