Let’s jump in our time machine and head back to 1776. For our trip, we have taken a newspaper, if we can find one. How much of today’s news would those people understand? Would they understand these words: internet, stock market, air conditioning, abortion, baseball bat, surfboard, radio, television, moonwalk, long-range nuclear missile, Facebook, X, tweet, eBay, Netflix, cell phone, blackberry... and the list could go on and on.

After listening to some of our explanations of these words, our new friends would probably laugh at us and think we were just stupid and, if they even had them then, that we were on some kind of drugs.

Look what has happened. The people of one century could never imagine as possible what the people of another century take for granted. With that in mind, let us review the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Jesus seems to be saying that the impossibilities of life become possible with a life of faith. Through faith, the power of God becomes available to us. What a tremendous power that is!

Faith does not mean that we can suddenly invent the machine that has been our longed-for dream. Nor does it mean that we can pass exams and write papers in coherent English merely through an act of faith or even artificial intelligence. That type of thinking demonstrates false faith rooted in the frailty of our human nature.

The faith that Jesus is talking about means that we take our God-given talents and use them well, use them for ourselves, use them for others, use them or lose them.

But we all know that our faith can weaken at times. Moments of despair replace faith and the world seems hopeless. So, how do we keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts?

Sometimes our lack of faith comes from mere human moods. Yes, faith can fall victim to human nature. We have mood swings with highs and lows. Some days all things are beautiful; on others, ugly seems to be the word of the day.

On other occasions, our lack of faith may come from our neglecting our faith. The greatest sign of our lack of faith is sin. Every sin weakens our faith. Also, too, we neglect to nourish our faith. Our bodies grow weak without proper nourishment and exercise. So, too, our spiritual lives grow weak without spiritual nourishment.

Sometimes, God lets events happen that may challenge our faith. These moments can be occasions for us to mature in our faith just as God helped Abraham and Job mature in their faith journey.

In the novel The Devil’s Advocate, one of Morris West’s characters says: “I groped for God and could not find God. I prayed to God and God did not answer. I wept at night for the loss of God. Then one day, God was there again. I had a parent and God knew me. I had never understood till this moment the meaning of the words ‘gift of faith.’”

Our time machine journey showed that humanity has made remarkable progress in about 200 years. As a matter of fact, we do not have 200 years at our disposal to make lots of spiritual progress. In fact, we only have one day at a time.

Most of the changes of the past 200 years have been for the good, the improvement of humanity. Many have hurt humanity. For example, abortion, armed conflict, world war, euthanasia are all evils for which we must use the next years to eradicate.

Hopefully, our faith will be strong enough to influence the removal those evils.

When he beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the moments of darkness in life and the spiritual decay in our lives or the lives of others. The Holy Father cited Newman’s words which could find a home on our lips: “Lead kindly, Light. ... Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home; ...

I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step is enough for me.”