My friends, imagine for a moment stepping into a time machine and traveling back to the historic year of 1776, holding a copy of a morning newspaper from our own time. Now, picture the people of that time trying to read it. How much would they understand?
Most experts would say, “Not much.” For them, it would be like trying to read a foreign language.
Think for a moment about the words that would stop them in their tracks: airplane, supermarket, air conditioning, baseball bat, television.
If they were to ask you what “television” meant, you might explain it as a box that allows you to see things happening far away – or even things that aren’t real, like cartoons. What would their reaction be? If they had any sense at all, they might tell you that you were crazy, or that you were making the whole thing up.
The point is: what one generation considers utterly impossible, another generation accepts as ordinary fact. What one century cannot even imagine, another century takes for granted as part of daily life.
Now, let’s reverse the scenario. Imagine that someone from the year 3000 arrives here in 2025, carrying their own newspaper. But in this paper, there are no reports of violence, no accounts of poverty, no stories of war – only accounts of love, peace, prosperity and friendship.
What would we say? Likely, we would answer, “That world isn’t real.” Why? Because we know human history. Where there are people, there is hostility. There are rich and poor, haves and have-nots. There is conflict and war. This has always been the case, and so we believe it always will be.
But here is the lesson: if we begin with the assumption that peace on earth is impossible, we will never achieve it. If we believe deep down that people are selfish by nature, we will never create a society rooted in generosity and care.
Yet Jesus tells us something different. He came to show us the way to live. He died and rose again to prove that peace is possible.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Faith has the power to move mountains – mountains of despair, mountains of hopelessness, mountains of addiction. But that power only becomes real when we truly believe.
Faith means not only believing in the truth of Christ, but opening ourselves up to Him; allowing Him to work within our lives. Maybe we sometimes need to remember that simple but powerful prayer: “God, I believe. Help my unbelief.”
And perhaps, my friends, it is time we take seriously the words we print on our money and display in our courtrooms: “In God we trust.”
In God we trust. The question is, do we truly place our confidence in Him? Do we let our faith in God live fully in our hearts?
