We need to give him permission to move the “mountain” which exists between our head and our heart….Jesus asks us today…..“Do you believe that I can do this?”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St Matthew Jesus addressing people who ask for the impossible……Jesus is God, which means he can do anything…Do we put God in a box?…Do we think of Jesus purely on human terms?……When Jesus asks this question today (“Do you believe that I can do this?”) the people respond….”Yes, Lord,” they said to him. Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”….Scripture tells us that if we have “faith the size of a mustard seed” we can tell a mountain to move and it will move…..Many times that “mountain” can be our own heart…The greatest distance one can travel is from ones head to their heart…But fear not…All we need is faith “the size of a mustard seed”…..If we nurture the faith we have, God can move mountains…We may even find that the “mountain” he moves is us!……Our God is the God of the impossible…He rose from the dead and he has “cracked tougher nuts” then you…..“O you of little faith”

“On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see”

Americans value achievement - And that is a good thing..…We want our children to get great educations, become professionals and make a good living….Parents condition their children for this outcome…..While achievements such as education and professional success are important….Are we as parents “planting the seeds of faith” within the hearts of our children?….This is BY FAR the most important thing we can give to our kids….A solid Catholic formation will guide all their big decisions in life…Who they marry?….How they work?…What they do for work?….How they spend their time?…What they spend their time on?…How they spend their money?…I can go on and on…..Passing our Catholic faith on to our children does not happen magically and ultimately a successful life ends with our kids entering the gates of heaven…To the surprise of many…One does not just “float into heaven”….Going to heaven requires a daily decision, which stems from our faith in God…Our faith in God comes from our parents more times then not and if we as parents do not model this faith in the home, we should not expect our children to live as Catholics in the world…..Many years ago on Good Friday my family and I were in our mini-van driving to the 3:00pm prayer service, which takes place every Good Friday…As you know, Good Friday is one of the holiest days of the year…The day Jesus gave his life for the world…If Jesus did not die for us…NO ONE enters heaven…So as a result, Good Friday is a very special day…..Back to the mini-van….On this one Good Friday me and the family were driving to Church for the 3:00pm service and we passed the baseball field in my hometown on the way…It was 2:45pm…Its GOOD FRIDAY…..And a baseball practice was taking place…As we drove by it I thought to myself…How terribly sad…”Our priorities” were on full display and this small example can be seen each and everyday by what we see on television, how our children dress, what they view on their phone……How we spend our time and what we do with our money says everything the world needs to know…It also demonstrates to our children what is important to us, which in turn will form in them what will be important to them when they become adults……Even if we have faith the size of a mustard seed as Scripture tells us, that faith will not magically grow if we do not tend to it

“They shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob, and be in awe of the God of Israel”

Jesus today in St Matthew’s gospel asks a question…..“Do you believe that I can do this?”……We ask God for “things” all the time…..But in the end we need to realize that God is not a “candy machine” where we put in our “coin” and out pops what we want…..God is our loving father, he made us, knowing that is not where it should end, its where it should begin….Our faith will not grow if we do not nurture it….And our Catholic faith will not be passed down to our children if we do not practice it each day in the home….God can surely “move mountains”…..But before he does, we need to give him permission to move the “mountain” which exists between our head and our heart….Jesus asks us today…..“Do you believe that I can do this?”