27^th. Sunday, Year (C)

(Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10)

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:

Romans 1:17           For in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Galatians 3:11         But that no one is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident, for the just man shall live by faith.

Hebrews 10:38       Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.

Romans 11:20         Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith.

As you can see it was a central and an essential point of Christian teaching for St. Paul … and where do you find faith held in such respect anywhere today other than in the Catholic Church?

Why is faith so important?  Well, 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 – the Apostles, all twelve of them, had come to recognize their need, above all, to grow in faith; and they turned to Jesus and besought Him, saying:

            Increase our faith.

How those recent experiences seem to have affected those Apostles, for they had put a very simple and childlike request before Jesus, a request that made it evident that they were indeed in the process of being formed as children of God.

However a childlike spirit should never be allowed to become childish, 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, St. Mark tells us:

A mustard seed, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth (4:31).

The mulberry tree, on the other hand, was an extremely sturdy and deep-rooted tree which could grow to some 35’ high.

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 fully.

They wanted an increase of faith, a greater amount 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 … a metaphor to illustrate the un- imaginable power of true faith.

St. Paul did understand this unimaginable power of faith after the Resurrection of Jesus, for in a letter to the Christians at Ephesus he says:

(I pray) that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21)

That is the full understanding of the wondrous power and final purpose of faith: through our faith, the power of God which raised Jesus from the dead unto the right hand of the Father in glory, that very power can be at work in us too.

It is not so much a question of the quantity of faith we may have but of its quality: having received the initial gift of faith, it is not a matter of our asking for more to be given us by God so much as our co-operating more closely and whole-heartedly with what we have already been given; it is a matter of whether we allow faith to work freely in us, or whether we put all sorts of worldly considerations in the way as obstacles to its development; whether we commit ourselves without reserve to the guidance and the demands of our faith or whether we allow earthly fears and selfish considerations to constrict our heart and inhibit our commitment.

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.

Even if your faith be like a mustard seed, allow it to work freely and fully in you and it will prove to be an ever-increasing and ultimately irresistible force in your life until it brings you to fulfilment.

We are told that throughout His earthly life Jesus – as a man – was being perfected until He was totally committed with the fullness of His humanity – in every recess, at every level, and to the fullest extent of all His human powers and potentialities – to His heavenly Father and to us:

Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to 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 life 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:

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.    Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.  (John 6:53-56)

Jesus’ humanity was 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; 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 communion, meant to become ever more compelling and fulfilling as we are led to take ever greater personal control of our lives; it is not an inert parcel of something which can be given in bigger or smaller portions and which -- remaining the same as when originally given -- might cause us to ask: ‘Give us more, please.’  No, it 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, even stop the process of our growth, by indifference, ignorance, worldliness and, ultimately, sinfulness. 

Let us end with 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.

25th. Sunday Year (C) 

(Amos 8:4-7; 1Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13)

He who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and he who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.

This teaching is applicable to many and varied aspects of life and training: for example, when learning to play the piano I was told that if I could play the piece slowly, in a controlled manner with no mistakes, then I would soon be able to play it at speed; and in all forms of endeavour, intellectual, technical and athletic, it is essential to acquire the basic skills if one hopes to attain to any degree of true proficiency.   There is, however, one decisive sphere in the human experience of life where it is supremely necessary and beneficial: that is, in parental upbringing of children.

Although most parents would say they agreed with the principle, nevertheless, far too many seem to have difficulty in their practical application of it; since, for whatever reasons, they do not want, or do not feel themselves able, to closely observe and lovingly guide their children in certain basic aspects of humanity that promote and protect happiness as individuals and peace and cohesion as members of society.  As a result they allow their children to grow up without any clear understanding of right and wrong, and no appreciation of the need for and dignity of good manners for life in society.  Never having learned to practice obedience towards their parents, such children grow up with little respect or reverence for the elderly or those in positions of authority; and being unversed in the practice of discipline and self-control, they have little awareness, and even less appreciation, of the rights of others, especially the humble, the weak, and the needy.  

Parents who thus, instead of trustfully and confidently facing up to their responsibilities, consistently speak soft and self-excusing words such as "He is only a baby, she only young", and thereby allow children in their care to grow up unruly, disrespectful, disobedient, selfish and cheeky, will, inevitably, be themselves found  responsible, in their measure, for the many subsequent excesses of the lout and the mugger, the addict and the drop-out, the lawless and the violent adult, gradually formed and finally turned out by their school of self-absolving, careless, indulgence over many years.  As a result, many in positions of authority and obligation with regard to children will have a very severe judgement to face because of their failure to recognize and teach the truth contained in those words:

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Having already glanced at the roots of crime in our modern society, we are now invited to turn our attention to wealth, worldly wealth.  In our Gospel reading Jesus went on to tell us:

If you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with  true wealth?

This "dishonest" wealth, of which Jesus speaks, is often called "worldly wealth" which is – often enough in the case of great acquired wealth – dishonestly acquired, and always dishonest or unrighteous because it tempts those who seek it into sinful, unrighteous ways, as we heard in the first reading:

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy, and destroy the poor of the land!  "When will the New Moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating!  We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!"

The true riches, on the other hand, of which Jesus speaks, are those given us by God, as Jesus promises elsewhere (Matt 25:34):

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’  

Our Western society, and in particular, current American society, is marked by, and hated for, its abuse of wealth:

When will the Sabbath be past that we may sell grain and trade wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales that we may buy the lowly for silver?

Whilst we cannot deny that unsavoury side of our western world, especially when it is represented by certain multi-national companies, nevertheless, it is by no means a western evil, for when we look at so many of the ruling classes or the ruling authorities in all parts of the world we see individuals and groups who are just as ready and eager as any western tycoon, to abuse wealth for the satisfaction of their own lusts for pleasure and power, without any real consideration for the needs of their own people.  Moreover, not just rulers and those in authority, not only multi-national companies, but indeed, all of us, need to look at our attitude to worldly wealth, for there are many so-called Christians who gladly put wealth first of all in their list of wishes to be fulfilled by some genial genie out of a bottle; and, in that respect, they too share in the guilt of those whose abuse of wealth they like to vocally condemn.

We must first of all realize that worldly wealth is not, of itself, an evil.  It does, indeed, lead easily to evil, but, of itself, it can be accepted on trust for the good of others.   We have had examples of this in our own society over the centuries; and in the early Church, some very wealthy members of Roman society, on becoming Christians, used their wealth to help fellow-Christians.   Indeed, the very making of honest wealth, can be good: for Christian business men and women can indeed do great good by providing work for others.  What is evil, however, is a desire for worldly wealth which would overstep the commands of God and override the rights of others, and in this respect many ordinary Christians are as guilty in their hearts and in their lives as those they may curse with their tongues.   How many men will indeed call a businessman a fat cat, even though he provides work, while cheering a much wealthier, and perhaps totally self-centred, footballer with all his heart?  In this matter we must remember again the words of Jesus:

If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another man's, who will give you what is yours?

The wealth of this world is possessed not by all men but only by a small minority; nevertheless, the natural riches of this world from which all personal wealth arises are most certainly given by God directly for all men.  Moreover, all the natural endowments of human nature together with the multitude of personal talents bestowed upon individuals are again given by God and intended indirectly, mediately, for all men: the talents of Beethoven and Handel, for example, while supporting and fulfilling their individual lives and aspirations, were also and supremely meant and bestowed to afford joy, comfort, and uplift, to all men.  In other words, whatever our situation in life, we all have gifts and corresponding responsibilities for those gifts: parents, teachers, the wealthy and the workers, those in authority and those in humble service, all of us have something which is not just for ourselves but for the good of others too, for the good of society, and of the world;   and we are commanded to use those blessings, our wealth of whatever sort, for the good of others not just for ourselves:

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

The unjust steward in our Gospel parable eventually learnt to do just that: he learnt to put mammon to the service of God insofar as those debtors, relieved of a considerable portion of their burden would, as St. Paul tells us, praise the Master in whose name their debt had been remitted:

You (he is writing to his converts in Corinth who have just made a collection for needy Christians in Jerusalem) are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.  For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God; (for) they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

We come finally to the question of authority and power, so closely allied to and connected with wealth.  Here we are not to judge so much as to pray.  We need men and women who are able and willing to bear authority and exercise power; but today many are again duplicitous in this respect, for they expect, and at times demand, that everything should be explainable to the ordinary public, who – they say -- can then give a definitive judgement on, or supreme authority for, the measure in question.  And yet, we are all well aware of that definition -- laughable but true -- of a camel or a dromedary, being the result of a committee trying to plan a horse!  Individuals are essential for decisions, governments are vital for policies, and we must never forget our Christian duty, a more serious and more essential duty than that of monitoring and criticising everything we do not, and cannot, fully understand, is the duty of prayer for those at the helm of the nation.  Politics is supremely important for the well-being of millions, and it is also is extremely involved: it is a devious skill at the best, where good intentions can easily be poisoned by a lust for power, or diverted by scheming and flattery, and where opportunities for self-serving abound, whilst true friends are rare if only because they are not easily to be discerned from the many pretenders surrounding those in high positions.  All this results in our joking frequently about politicians as if they could, and should, be dispensed with, consigned to the dust bin.  Dishonest ones should, of course, be removed, but we can never dispense with politicians as a whole; and because the world in which they live and work is both dangerous and even, at times, evil, the most sincere prayers of Christians are truly needful for such men and women to persevere as true Catholics and Christians, faithfully seeking to uphold Christian values and diligently serving the good of the whole of society:    

First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone, for kings and all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our saviour who wills everyone to be saved

Our readings today have shown themselves to be very pertinent for our present-day situation; indeed, their ultimate message is pertinent for all times and for all societies:

He who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and he who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.

The greatest temptation for individuals, and the gravest danger for society in general, arises when the requirement of faithfulness in small things is disregarded: whether such negligence be that of ordinary people thinking their failings make no difference to the overall picture, or that of the powerful and influential who believe such faithfulness to be a subject suitable indeed for their public, and condescending, commendation of others, but not one for personal observance in their own private lives and public office.   Let us all, therefore, whatever our station in life, remember that the God we serve and the Saviour we follow:

Raises up the lowly from the dust, and from the dunghill He lifts up the poor, to seat them with princes, with the princes of His own people.

For, despite our differing earthly stations our responsibilities are all needful and obliging, because their reward is for the present blessing of the whole of our whole society, and will be ultimately for our own personal share in eternal glory.