27th. Sunday Year (C)
(Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4. 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14. Luke 17:5-10)
Why did the Apostles say to Jesus: Increase our
faith?
Matthew’ version of our Gospel story tells us how
the Apostles had just failed to cure an epileptic boy brought to them, a
failure that Jesus said was due to their lack of faith. Luke does not give us
any such information about the Apostles’ failure, but introduces Jesus’ words
directly by that request of the Apostles:
Lord, increase our faith!
What led St. Luke to do this we do not know; but it
would seem that his pastoral experience guided him to try to bring the understanding
of faith into sharper focus, and in this he was successful because the Apostles’
request highlights a certain ignorance which was not only theirs’ surely but the
ignorance of the majority of Christians concerning the true nature of the gift
of faith:
Lord,
increase our faith (give us a bit more of it, please!)
Jesus' answer is clearly intended to help them better
understand the supernatural nature of God’s great spiritual gift and also to appreciate
it’s wondrous power with regard to what is merely natural and worldly; thereby showing
them the folly of their questioning God’s generosity instead of recognizing
their own ignorance and inadequacy:
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.
Notice that Jesus did not call their faith into
question; He didn’t say, ‘If you had
faith’, but, ‘If you have faith as a
mustard seed’. So often in the Christian
life, it is not that God’s gifts are insufficient for our needs, but rather that
we fail to truly appreciate the wonder of what has already been given us, as
St. Paul himself insinuated in the second reading:
Therefore
I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you.
Let me now give you a short description of the
mulberry tree (Barnes' notes) and you will have a clearer idea of the
significance of Jesus' parable.
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 wide-spread 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 still had Jesus with them, as the
centre of their minds' attention and hearts' affection, and perhaps for that
reason, they were not, as yet, able to appreciate the power of that gift of
faith which had made already made them into disciples of Jesus; because they
had not yet committed themselves to that faith; their eyes and ears were
supplying all they wanted, all they thought they needed. And so, Jesus now goes
on to hint at a time to come when He will no longer be with them and at their
side. He pictures a time when He Himself
will be "resting", and they will be required to continue working,
apparently alone, but, in reality, working on His behalf and by His Spirit:
Which of you, having a servant ploughing or tending
sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and
sit down to eat'? But will he not rather
say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me
till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'?
Speaking in this way Jesus opens up a further
aspect of the apostles' incomprehension :
God does not bestow His spiritual gifts on us for us to possess them as
children cling to, and at times boast of, presents they have received. He endows us with blessings in order that
thereby we may live in ever closer communion with Himself, and be empowered to
co-operate in the spread, and promote the understanding, of His Good News among
all peoples and throughout all time. Jesus, in short, wanted to counter any
possessiveness on the part of the Apostles, to protect them from that innate
tendency to selfishness and pride that would shortly incite them to argue
amongst themselves about which of them was the greatest. Jesus wanted to ward off the perennial
threat to all those who are specially gifted, by warning His apostles -- and
their successors -- against the pride and arrogance so commonly seen rampant in
the abuse of power. He spoke only a few
words because the apostles were not yet ready for more, but the words He chose covered
all that needed to be said; and, being simply expressed, certain aspects of
them could be readily understood by the apostles, while the more hidden depths
would subsequently be revealed to Mother Church -- who treasures all such words
of Jesus in her heart – through all the ages of her mission here on earth:
So likewise you, when you have done all those
things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done
what was our duty to do.'
The selflessness which Jesus was teaching and
praising there is something a worldly, proud, and unspiritual person cannot
endure. The prophet Habakkuk also
spoke, as did Jesus, about the time for labour in this world, when rest is
longed for but, though its promise be sure, its fulfilment has to be delayed:
Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that
he may run who reads it. The vision is
yet for an appointed time; at the end it will speak, and will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it
will surely come, it will not tarry.
The sinner, the lover of this world, the proud,
cannot abide such delay I say, for, as you heard, ‘his soul is not upright in
him’; he cannot be reconciled to waiting in trust, neither can he humble
himself in the service of a cause where success is not in some way readily apparent
or tangible. Such selfless devotion is
only for those whom God has specially blessed, as the prophet's words make
abundantly clear:
The just shall live by his faith.
St. Paul told us how God the Father has blessed all
who are in Christ Jesus:
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have
heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
We have been given, that is, two gifts in Jesus: the
gift of faith to hold fast to ‘the pattern of sound words’ contained in his
teaching and that of Mother Church, and that of love to seek and serve Jesus
personally in our daily living of that teaching. Now, with two such gifts, our call to
selflessness does not mean a life of sheer endurance as we journey through a
desert of aridity in the face of storms constantly exposing our weakness and
provoking anxiety; rather is it a life which, being gradually emptied of self-love,
is thereby made ever more capable of receiving the gifts of the Spirit,
of being filled to overflowing with the peace, joy, and love which are to be
found in Christ Jesus alone.
As Jesus told His disciples then and now, the gifts
already given us are sufficient for all our needs:
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.
Indeed, they are even more than sufficient for all
our desires! For faith is a treasure,
and love of Jesus is not only the fruit, beauty, and glory of that treasure,
but also the tool whereby we can come to appreciate what He has given us
ever more and more:
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have
heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you,
keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
The Apostles had to learn -- as must we -- that a
disciple of Jesus must work not only
outside, in the mission field of daily life in the world, but also on the
inside, in the secret depths of his or her own mind and heart. The one, true, Faith is not merely a form of
words to be believed and remembered, it is a treasure to be appreciated and
quarried by our mind and in our heart.
When worked on in that way the treasure which is our Faith yields up and
bestows a power indeed, but not one for self-aggrandisement, as the early
apostles childishly imagined; but one, on the contrary, that, revealing to us
the beauty of God's truth and the wonder of His love, thereby enables and
inspires us to become ever more selfless and wholly other, to the extent that,
as St. Paul puts it:
It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20)
Christ, by the power of His Spirit in us, leads,
guides, encourages and empowers us to work ever more at and with our treasure
trove of faith’s love and truth:
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God
which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His
prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the
power of God.
We are not to repeat the failure of those in the
time of the prophet Habakkuk who in the weakness of unredeemed humanity cried
out:
Why do You make me see iniquity and cause me to
look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; strife exists
and contention arises, yet You do not save.
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, have
work still to do for Him 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.
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)
(2004; not given anywhere; modified 2013)
