Posted by The WORD in other words (2006) by Father Eliseo Yyance SVD – Divine Word Seminary of Tagaytay
Monday 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
A dying rich man once told his children: “I am about to leave you all my earthly possessions. But there is one more thing I would like to leave you—Christian faith. If I could leave you that and nothing else, you would be rich indeed. If I left you everything else but not faith, you would be poor indeed.”
This is also God’s message to us: above all else, He asks us to have faith.
Jesus was known simply as a carpenter (Luke 4:29). He had no wealth, grandeur, or prestigious family background. If He had, perhaps His townspeople would not have rejected Him. But God chose simplicity, so that accepting Jesus as the Son of God required faith. Only those who believed could receive His message.
God prefers this humble approach because it leaves room for faith. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Jesuit Fr. Vima Dasan once said: “Faith is not so much a leap in the dark, as a leap out of darkness into light. Faith puts God between our circumstances and us, so that our life is safe in any circumstance.”
Faith is not blind—it is trust in God’s presence, which transforms fear into hope and weakness into strength. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
Faith is the richest inheritance we can receive and pass on. It sustains us in trials, gives meaning to simplicity, and secures our lives in God’s love. Material wealth fades, but faith endures.
“This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).
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