Icy Seasons of Life - Weekday Homily Video

When I visited Niagara last winter, my friends and me took a tour of a vineyard close by. If you’ve ever been to the Niagara region in January, you know it’s not exactly vacation weather. The wind cuts through your coat, your toes start questioning your life choices, and your nose runs like it signed up for a marathon. You wonder why anyone lives there at all. And yet, in those freezing days and nights, you’ll see workers in the vineyards harvesting grapes that look more like raisins than fruit.  

The guide explained that these shriveled, frozen grapes are the secret to Niagara’s prized ice wine. You hardly get a drop of juice from each grape. It takes a whole vine’s worth just to fill one glass. And yet those drops are so concentrated, so sweet, that people travel from all over just to taste it. Sweetness born from the cold, that’s the genius of ice wine. 

Seasons of Faith

Now, think about it: isn’t that how faith often works? It’s easy to trust and sing God’s praises when life is smooth, when the sun is shining, the bills are paid, the children are healthy, the car starts on the first try. Faith feels natural and strong at family weddings, around the table at Thanksgiving, or when you finally find a parking spot right in front of the church. In those seasons, joy flows like summer wine. 

But when winter sets in, when the doctor gives bad news, when the heating in your house dies the same week the roof leaks, when your teenager answers every question with an eye-roll, or when prayers feel like they’re bouncing off the ceiling, that’s when faith is tested. It’s in those icy seasons of life, when we’d rather pull the covers over our heads, that faith either shrivels or matures. 

The Thessalonians from the first reading understood this. Their faith wasn’t grown in the greenhouse of comfort but in the bitter cold of opposition. And Paul says it didn’t just survive, it rang out, echoing far beyond their little community. Like ice wine, their witness was concentrated, unmistakable, and unforgettable. 

Rich Witnesses

We have all tasted this kind of faith in people we know. I think of a woman I met who had battled cancer three times. She joked that she had “more hospital bracelets than jewelry,” but her joy was contagious. Sitting with her, you didn’t feel her sickness; you felt her hope. She was like ice wine, pressed by frost, yet releasing sweetness. 

Or parents, God bless them, who stay up all night with a sickly baby. They’re exhausted, balancing work and hospital, pacing the hallway of the hospital like zombies, but they sing lullabies anyway. That’s faith in action: love distilled in sleepless nights. 

Most of us would rather be table wine than ice wine. Harvest me early, Lord, in good weather, thank you very much. Who wants to be picked up at 3 a.m. in the snow? But the truth is, some of the richest witnesses in life come only when we are tested, stretched, and yes, frozen for a season. So maybe the question is this: when winter comes, and it will, what will flow from us? Bitterness? Complaints? Or the quiet, concentrated sweetness of trust in God? 

The beauty of Niagara ice wine is that it’s rare, costly, and deeply memorable. And so is authentic faith. You don’t need to produce gallons. Just a few drops of courage, love, and trust can echo like the Thessalonians, sweetness born of the cold, a taste the world will never forget. Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. 

• Today’s Readings
  
  
• Father Boby's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (and the Rosary at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page.
  
  
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