27th. Sunday, Year (C)
(Habakkuk
1:2-3, 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10)
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My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our first reading from the
prophet Habakkuk contained one of the most famous phrases in Scripture:
The just shall live
by his faith.
This phrase has been repeated directly and indirectly time and again in
the New Testament:
In (the Gospel) is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to
faith, as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)
That no one is justified before God by the Law is clear, for the
just man shall live by faith. (Galatians 3:11)
Now My just one shall live by faith; but if he draws
back, I take no pleasure in him. (Hebrews 10:38)
As you can see faith was a central and an essential point of Christian
teaching for St. Paul. Why is faith so important? Well, just recall
the Gospel reading. The Apostles --
perhaps after the failure of nine of them to heal an epileptic boy
brought to them, a failure, Jesus had said, due to their lack of faith; and
also, perhaps, after the other three, Peter, James, and John, had felt
themselves so totally overwhelmed on the Mount of Transfiguration where they
heard the voice of the Father speaking from the cloud and had
witnessed Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah – all twelve of the
Apostles had come to recognize their need, above all, to grow in faith; and
they turned to Jesus and besought Him, saying: Increase our faith.
Those recent experiences seem to have deeply affected the Twelve, for
they had felt compelled to put a very honest and childlike request to Jesus, a
request that made it evidently clear that they were indeed in the process of
being formed as children of God, destined for spiritual manhood, and so the
Lord replied:
If you have faith as
a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots
and be planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.
A mustard seed is the smallest of seeds in the lands of the Bible as St.
Mark tells us:
A mustard seed, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth (4:31).
That you may have a clearer idea of the significance of Jesus' parable,
let me now give you a short description of the mulberry tree which could
top 35’ (Barnes' notes):
Look, now, at this tree: its ample girth, its wide-spread arms branching off from the parent trunk only a few feet from the ground. Next, examine its enormous roots: as thick, as numerous, and as widespread into the deep soil below as the branches extend into the air above. What power on earth can pluck up such a tree? Heaven's thunderbolt may strike it down, the wild tornado may tear it to fragments, but, surely, nothing short of miraculous power could pluck it up by the roots."
The Apostles were only beginning to understand the treasure which was theirs. In true spiritual childhood they had asked for greater faith to be given them, but they could not be allowed to childishly think that only God’s giving was involved … they had to grow in understanding and realize that all gifts of God require our co-operation if we are to appreciate them aright and profit from them. They wanted an increase of faith, a greater quantity of faith to put it more concretely, and they were told that, even if their faith was no bigger than the proverbial mustard seed, if they really believed, they could even uproot a mulberry tree and throw it into the sea.
St. Paul, the Lord’s specially chosen Apostle of the Gentiles, did
understand this unimaginable power of faith after the Resurrection of Jesus,
for in a letter to the Christians at Ephesus (1:18-21) he says:
May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is
the hope that belongs to His call, what are the riches of glory in His
inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of His
power for us who believe, in accordance with the exercise of His great might,
which He worked in Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right
hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power,
and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the
one to come.
That is the full understanding of the wondrous power and final purpose
of faith, for us: through our faith, the power of God which raised Jesus from
the dead unto the right hand of the Father in glory can be at work in us to
raise us up in Jesus to the Father.
It is not the quantity of faith we may have, that matters, but its
quality. Having received the initial
gift of faith, it is not a matter of our asking, like Oliver Twist, for more to
be given us by God; what matters is our co-operating more closely and
whole-heartedly with what we have already been given: whether we allow the faith
given us to work freely in us, to guide and even determine our lives, or
whether we put all sorts of worldly considerations in the way as obstacles to
its development; whether, in one way or another, we allow personal timidity and
self-centeredness to constrict our heart and inhibit self-commitment in our
lives before God.
The Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this
mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it
would obey you.
Dear People of God, even if our faith be like a mustard seed, we must allow
it to work freely and fully in us and it will prove to be an ever-increasing
and ultimately irresistible force in our lives until it brings us to
fulfilment.
We are told that throughout His earthly life Jesus was being perfected,
as a man, until He was totally committed in the fullness of His humanity – at
every level and to the fullest extent of all His human powers and
potentialities – to His heavenly Father and to us:
Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He
suffered. And when He was made perfect, He became the source of
eternal salvation for all who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:8-9)
There was so much He could not appreciate and embrace as a child … only
as full-grown man, for example, could He appreciate the loving obedience of
suffering and embrace the sacrificial commitment of death … and only when
having become absolutely perfect in His humanity, could that humanity serve as
the source of our eternal salvation.
Throughout creation life engenders life, life alone nourishes life ….
What has never been alive can never serve to nourish and sustain the
living. Our Blessed Lord brought new life for mankind; He is the
unique source of that hitherto unknown life which is able to promote the fullness of
humanity and share in the goodness of divinity. That is why we are
not ashamed to say that we eat the Body and drink the Blood of Christ:
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within
you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has
eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For My flesh is
true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My
blood remains in Me and I in him. (John 6:53-56)
Jesus’ humanity was being irrevocably perfected throughout His life on
earth because He was, from beginning to end, the only-begotten Son of the
eternal Father being led by the Holy Spirit to the fulness of humanity; and a
like process of perfecting cannot begin in us until we become children of God
through faith in Jesus. It is our faith which sets that process
going; you can say faith is that power of perfection in our life which leads,
under the guidance and power of Jesus’ gift of the Spirit, to eternal glory in
heaven.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not only treasure, but let
us also understand the nature of, our faith: it is a vital power of personal
communion, becoming more and more fulfilling as we let it take ever greater
control of our lives. It is not an inert
parcel of something which can be given and received in bigger or smaller
portions and which -- remaining the same as when originally given -- might
cause us to ask: ‘Give us more, please.’ No, our faith is a living
process of dialogue, appreciation and commitment, which of its very nature goes
on and on (if indeed we let it and follow it) until we reach the perfection of
our being and the fulfilment of our personal identity. Although
nothing can resist it -- it could uproot even a mulberry tree, transfer a
mountain into the sea -- we ourselves, however, can slow it down; indeed, we
can even stop the process of its growth by our indifference, ignorance, worldliness
and sinfulness.
Let us turn to St.
Paul again, as you heard him speak in the second reading
Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith
and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the
help of the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us.
Paul urges us to co-operate with the leading and protecting power of
God’s Holy Spirit and learn to delight in and work with our treasure-trove of
‘faith and love in Christ Jesus’:
Therefore, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have
through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit
of cowardice, but rather of power, love, and self-control. So do not
be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for His sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes
from God.
We are not to repeat the failure of those in the time of the prophet
Habakkuk who in the weakness and hopelessness of unredeemed humanity cried out:
Why do You let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and
violence are before me; there is strife and clamorous discord, yet You do not
listen, You do not intervene.
The time of rest, the time for rejoicing over the ultimate conquest of
evil is not yet. Jesus Himself is indeed in heavenly glory, but we
His disciples still have work, much work, to do for Him -- for His Body, the
Church – here on earth:
Prepare something for My supper, and gird yourself and serve Me till I
have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink
.
It is for that purpose we have been gifted with "the faith and love
that is in Christ Jesus"; let us then aspire, with sure confidence and
firm hope, to the fulfilment of His promise:
Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when He comes, will find
watching. Assuredly, I say to you that He will gird Himself and have them sit
down to eat, and will come and serve them. (Luke 12:37-38)
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