19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) – August 10, 2025

St. Patrick – Wichita, KS

Wisdom 18:6-9; Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-22; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; Luke 12:32-48

A Mutated DNA

When I was growing up, my dream was to be a doctor. I was fascinated with all of the medical stuff, all of the ways we can treat diseases. Science was fascinating. I remember in high school learning about genetics, growing a bean plant and everything. But Genetics and DNA—that stuff is just wild!

So, real quick, do you know what a genetic mutation is? Do you know what genes are? Do you know what DNA is? Real simple: DNA is that material in you that gives instructions for your body’s development. It’s the roadmap, so to speak, for your body to develop and function. A gene—a gene is one section of your DNA, containing specific instructions (one part of this “roadmap”) for one specific molecule (usually a protein). And it’s these proteins that control everything. Kinda scary when you think about it. And there are thousands of genes, over 20-thousand protein-coding genes—tiny, microscopic!

But what happens when one, just one of these tiny, microscopic genes go AWOL, undergoes a mutation? It literally threatens your life! Your very life is in jeopardy because of this tiny, microscopic thing. Being born deaf, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, sickle cell anemia—all of these a result of one single gene being out of whack.

Now, back when I was up in Lyons, I noticed a phenomenon, and it’s a phenomenon that’s not unique to Lyons, but it was just very noticeable. And the phenomenon was this: close to 70% of Catholics did not come to Mass on a regular basis. Why? Because they’re bad people? No! I knew a lot of them! For the most part good, hardworking, decent people. So why do they stay away? And again, I know that this number is accurate here too.

As I reflected as to why this is, and asked and prodded, I discovered: something had gone wrong at the most basic level, some small mutation held them back. St. Paul often compares the Church to a body (c.f., 1 Corinthians 12). So I think it’s fitting to talk about how in the Church, in this “body,” simple “genetic mutations” have caused drastic complications, hindered our development and function. We can get 99% right: Jesus, Scripture, the Eucharist, Grace, Love, Mercy, Peace. But when even just one “gene” is off… everything can be threatened. And there are a few “mutations” that are more problematic than others. But in our second reading today, our attention is placed on one—and it’s one that I think is the most foundational. And that’s faith.

The Real DNA of Faith

So, what is faith? If you go ask a random person on the street, what will they say “faith” is? Faith is believing something with no evidence—like believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Faith is for people who have never picked up a science book. Faith is a thing for people that can’t get their life together and work hard enough to get things done for themselves—they resort to “faith.” Faith is a “religious status,” a brand of “spirituality”: Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Hindu, Muslim, the Three-Headed Lizard God of Sunflowers—whatever “spiritual thing” floats your boat. Yeah? Have we hear these things?

Ok, that’s the mutation. But what is it actually? Faith is a way of knowing and a way of living. Faith is a way of knowing, it is a type of knowledge—and we use it every day! For example, when you go to the grocery store, do you take every piece of food to a laboratory to be tested to see if it’s poisonous? No. When you walked in today, were you worried that I might lock all the doors and fill the church with a poisonous gas, killing us all? Now you are! But no! When your mom told you that she loves you, did you make her take a lie detector test? No! Why? Because we know these things not by scientific test or by seeing with our eyes…but by faith. Faith is a way of knowing. A person who is incapable of knowing with faith is what we call paranoid. They’re paranoid because they do need to test every piece of food for poison, they do need to sit next to a breakable window in case I try something funky.

But it even goes a step further than that—and importantly it goes further than that! Faith isn’t just a way of knowing, it’s also a way of living. What do I mean? There is this very famous guy by the name of Charles Blondin, lived back in the mid 1800’s. Chuck (as we’ll call him)—Chuck was a very famous French acrobat, a tightrope walker. Very famously, he’s the one that would walk a tightrope stretched over Niagara Falls—almost a quarter of a mile. Thousands gathered to watch. And it was so easy for him that he’d find ways to make it more difficult. He cross the rope on stilts, on a bicycle—easy! One day, what he started doing, is he took a wheelbarrow full of rocks, and he started wheeling this wheelbarrow full of rocks with him. And he’d go back and forth. And the crowds there were cheering him on, going crazy! After about the third time pushing the wheelbarrow across, he turned to the crowd and said: “How many of you think I can do it again?” They shouted, “Yes!” “Do you think I will make it?” “Yes!!” “Do you think I could do it with a person in the wheelbarrow?” “Yes!!!” Then Blondin dumped out the rocks and asked for a volunteer. And no one moved. Why? Because they didn’t have faith in him.

Faith isn’t just a way of knowing, it’s also a way of living. Ultimately, faith means entrusting yourself to a person, freely placing your life in the hands of another. And we do this all the time: we entrust our health to the grocery store, you’re entrusting your safety to me right now. But when it comes to God—do we? Or do we say we believe it (“I believe in one God”), but then don’t put any skin in the game? Faith is entrusting your life to Him, getting in the wheelbarrow!

In our second reading, the letter to the Hebrews uses Abraham as the example of faith. Why? Because Abraham didn’t just believe certain things, he didn’t just see things a certain way—he also (and most importantly) allowed all of that to affect his life. As a well established, old man, he was willing—and he did—leave his comfortable life and began a new adventure. He entrusted his life to God, freely placed his life into God’s hands, and journeyed to a new land.

The Science of Faith and Fear

Now, when Blondin dumped out the rocks and asked for a volunteer, no one moved. And we don’t blame them, right? Why? “Because that’s scary! I wouldn’t do that! Too scary!!” But fear isn’t the issue. We get the order wrong. We say, “Well, they were afraid, and that’s why they didn’t trust him.” So fear leads to a lack of trust. But that’s backwards! “They didn’t trust him, and because of that they were too afraid to get in the wheelbarrow.” A lack of faith, not fear.

There is more and more amazing data coming out of the field of psychology and neurobiology about all of this. So for instance, there is groundbreaking research in the psychological field of attachment theory, human attachment, the ways that humans form and maintain deep bonds with each other, deep relationship. So for instance, take a couple in a long-term relationship: here is a secure attachment, a secure bond. Well, the fascinating thing is that if this bond is threatened, the nervous system goes into what’s called a “primal panic”: “primal” because you don’t control it, it’s just an automatic response, all limbic system. And what this panic does is it triggers the amygdala—a.k.a., the part of your brain that controls…“fear.” When a secure connection is lost or threatened, especially when it’s threatened—fear is the response. NOT the cause, the response. With Charles Blondin, people couldn’t get in the wheelbarrow, not so much because they were afraid of heights, or that the rope would break, no. They didn’t trust him enough, their level of faith in him, the level of faith needed to entrust their life to him wasn’t there. So they feared.

But here’s the other amazing thing. On the flip side of that, if you are in a fearful situation, or a dangerous situation, or are experiencing pain or the threat of pain—if the person you have a deep relationship with, a deep personal connection with is there with you, the amygdala is triggered far, far less—sometimes not at all. In other words, in a situation that should cause lots of fear—when the person you have a deep connection with, a deep bond with is there, fear is driven out. So with the Charles Blondin example, if  one of the people in the crowd would have had a deep, personal connection, a deep relationship with him, they would have easily hopped in the wheelbarrow, no fear.

And this is the point: the issue isn’t that fear prevents us from truly living faith; no, that’s backwards. The issue is that we don’t have a secure attachment, a deep enough relationship with Jesus Christ—so we fear fully entrusting our lives to him. And so we entrust our lives to other things: work, sports, school, whatever. So the answer? The answer is a deeper relationship with Christ. Abraham did everything by faith, why? Because of his deep relationship with God.

New School Year = Perfect Time to Start Again

And so as we begin our new school year this week—a new school year is the perfect time to start again, even better than the actual New Year. We just got done with the craziness of summer, we are going to be back in a normal routine. And so this is the perfect time to establish a routine, to set up a routine, one that allows you to develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. School are handing out calendars, teams and clubs and extracurriculars are handing out calendars—everyone is vying for your time and attention. And so I would encourage you—start your calendar with two things: the Sunday Mass, and daily prayer.

In my entire life, I have missed Mass on Sunday only one time: I was five and I barfed in front of my mother, so she said, “Ok, you can stay home.” But my family’s entire life revolved around the Sunday Mass, making sure that the Sunday Mass was the first thing we scheduled each week. It was never, “When can we fit Mass in?” It was always, “We’re going to Mass at 10:00am on Sunday…now we can plan the rest of our week.” Also, every morning we attended Mass at 7:00am and every night, every night, our family took fifteen minutes to pray the Rosary. So each day was scheduled around our time for prayer. Why? Because if someone is important, they come first; if you want to develop a deeper relationship with someone, time is the number one factor.

So I would encourage you, as we begin this “new year,” as all of these calendars and schedules start to get thrown at you—start with two thing: the Sunday Mass and daily prayer. Build a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, so that you can truly respond with faith, a living faith, to anything and everything that comes your way.