Faith the size of a mustard seed
Beautiful statements about our faith may impress others and ourselves for a moment, but they do not change us. Inspiration to change comes from living witnesses, people who inspire us by the way they live. Often the disciples did not even understand Jesus, but they saw what he did, and how he lived. They admired him and so they asked, “Lord, make our faith grow!” People consider us practicing Christians, but the heart of the matter is whether we are believers, people of faith, close to our Lord, who live as we believe. Let us also ask: Lord, make our faith grow!
God’s people have to keep trusting in their trials, for their faith will save them.
Jesus wants his disciples to have absolute faith in God. And yet, even a life full of faith does not entitle us to privileges, for faith is a gift from God.
First Reading: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
God, how long do I have to cry out for help
before you listen?
How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!”
before you come to the rescue?
Why do you force me to look at evil,
stare trouble in the face day after day?
Anarchy and violence break out,
quarrels and fights all over the place.
Law and order fall to pieces.
Justice is a joke.
And then God answered: “Write this.
Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
pointing to what’s coming.
It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait!
And it doesn’t lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
It’s on its way. It will come right on time.
“Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—
full of himself but soul-empty.
But the person in right standing before God
through loyal and steady believing
is fully alive, really alive.
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14
That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.
So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us.
So keep at your work, this faith and love rooted in Christ, exactly as I set it out for you. It’s as sound as the day you first heard it from me. Guard this precious thing placed in your custody by the Holy Spirit who works in us.
Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.”
But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it.
“Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”
Prayer
God our Father,
we thank you for our faith,
which we have received from you
as a gift to be developed with your help.
Make our faith grow day after day,
let it give meaning to our life
and express itself in love and justice.
Let it bring us joy and understanding,
and make us very close to you and to people.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Video available at: bibleclaret.org
