27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Reflection: Having faith in our faith
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
I am friends with a few Ukrainian Sisters of St. Basil the Great. I am appalled and heartbroken at what has been happening in their country. I think of Gaza where cruelty has brought death and starvation in addition to the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools.
In our own country, human beings exercise the “right” to obtain weapons and wreak senseless violence on the innocent. In too many places, powerful people inflict misery on the vulnerable while the rest of the world stands by wringing our hands. Does that not leave us grieving with Habakkuk who prays, “I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery?”
The Lord answers that “the vision still has its time … and will not disappoint.”
What can that mean? Today, this message seems enigmatic or even detached. What are we supposed to believe?
In today’s Gospel, the apostles ask for more faith. Speaking with what seems to be untethered exaggeration, Jesus tells them, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” you could do the impossible.
Why did Jesus speak of the mustard seed when his friends asked for more faith? Remember, Jesus saw mustard seeds as some of the most prolific things God created (Luke 13:18-19). A minuscule mustard seed grows as its internal dynamism impels it to sprout and burst forth in stupendous growth. It needs soil and water, but its potential is God-instilled, an example of the energy and life the Creator has sown in every living creature.
The mustard seed not only surges forth in growth, but it also produces more seeds. In Jesus’ vision, faith like the mustard seed is something exuberantly energetic and will not disappoint. That’s the kind of power Paul found in the Gospel.
When Paul wrote to his beloved Timothy, he bade him “to stir into flame the gift of God you have through the imposition of my hands.” Paul knew that his protégé Timothy had lived his faith with a passion born and nurtured by his family. It was in his blood. Paul was concerned that Timothy could be overwhelmed by the circumstances in which he ministered, losing touch with the fervent faith of his youth and the certainty that God would give him the strength he needed. Like a father, Paul encouraged Timothy to rejuvenate his sense of mission like someone who blows on embers until a flame flares forth and everything catches fire.
Where does this Liturgy of the Word leave or lead us?
First, we remember that our faith is not transactional like the relationship between the master and servant in Jesus’ parable. Faith has nothing to do with service performed out of duty or to secure a promised reward. Faith involves the vision Christ leads us to share with God. Faith is absolutely and totally relational. As servants of God and members of the body of Christ, we are instilled with the grace and faith-energy of the mustard seed. In Christ’s vision, everything we do can lead us and our world into deeper union with God and with all of creation.
So, what about all that seems to be going disastrously in our world today? Here we go back to Habakkuk. Habakkuk’s lament came from faith — a deep faith that knew that things shouldn’t and didn’t need to be as they were. That kind of faith is a call to action. We pray with Habakkuk, not to change God’s will, but to open ourselves to the energy and grace of our baptism, to allow mustard seed faith to flower in and among us.
How does that help me as I pray for and talk to my Ukrainian sisters? They are far away, and I am comfortably safe. Because of them and the innocent victims of shootings, because of endless wars and the hatred perpetrated by self-righteous, angry people, I shout with Habakkuk, “Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery?”
It seems that the only answer comes from the women who stood at the foot of the cross. They refused to simply wring their hands. Their weeping and watching was a mustard seed of faith-full-ness. Their presence said, “It does not have to be this way! This is not God’s will!” When they could do nothing but watch and weep and love, their presence changed everything. Jesus was not abandoned.
Unleashing mustard seed faith in our circumstances is painful and sometimes dangerous. Today’s liturgy asks us if we are ready to pray, “Lord, increase our faith!” If we ask genuinely, it will be granted. The vision God offers still has its time.
Reading 1
(Habakkuk 1: 2-3, 2: 2-4)
How long, O LORD? I cry for help
but you do not listen!
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not intervene.
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.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 95: 1-2, 6-9)
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading 2
(2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14)
Beloved:
I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and 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.
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
that dwells within us.
Gospel
(Luke 17: 5-10)
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
The Lord replied,
“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'”