Faith that leads to service and vice versa!

WORD OF FAITH: A breakdown of each week's upcoming Sunday readings to better understand the Word of God at Mass.

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.” — Luke 17:6

In the Gospel, the Apostles are asking Jesus for something. Notice that they did not ask him for money, or fame or success; nor even for wisdom, or health or a long life. No, they ask him: “Increase our faith.” They literally ask the Lord to “add to” or to “top up” their faith. This is important, as the Apostles feel that they have faith, but that their faith needs help, or that it is fragile, or that it needs to grow and to be strengthened. In other words, they know that faith is a gift and that, in the end, it is only God who can increase that gift (we call it “grace”). 

I think the encounter between Jesus and the Apostles may describe many of us too, especially as we live in such troubled and even disturbing times. We certainly know that faith is a huge help to us, but we also feel the need for an increase or strengthening of that faith. Faith can be amazingly strong, but it can also be very fragile. Our Gospel prompts us then to pray to the Lord for an increase in our faith, but also to refresh our understanding of faith: what it is and what it is not. This can be part of our Gospel reflection for this week.

Faith is (sadly) not an insurance policy against difficulties and troubles, either for us or for our family and friends. Nor is faith just some sort of wearied resignation or acceptance of the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (to quote Shakespeare). However, faith does help us greatly when we encounter difficulties or sufferings. It can give us courage and strength, but also a perspective, enabling us to see beyond the problem or crisis. In this sense, faith and insight are very close cousins. How often have we said, if it were not for faith, I don’t know how I would have gotten through that tough time. 

Faith is also about knowledge and understanding: what is often called objective faith. At Mass, we “profess our faith” when we recite the Creed together. A great exercise is to take each phrase in the Creed and to reflect on what it really means. There are literally thousands of books that discuss and explore our faith. Why not make a resolution to read at least one such book or article every month. A note of caution here needs to be sounded, though. As many great theologians and spiritual writers note, the more we know about our faith, the more we delve into the mystery of God, the less we seem to know! Exploring our faith, therefore, is also a good way of maintaining a healthy humility.

Finally, faith is not just about knowledge and understanding; it is about a relationship. It is not just I believe (or we believe) in God, it is I believe (or we believe) God. In our First Reading, the people of Israel faced a desperate situation and so they put their faith and trust in God, and in His love for them. In this sense, faith is like a work of art, or a beautiful poem, or a truly classic book or movie. It inspires us, forms us and then it guides our choices, our values and who we are in our very heart. God is always faithful to us: he invites us into a faithful, faith-filled relationship with him. In that faithful response to God’s love, we can grow and flourish.

Then comes the second part of the Gospel passage we have this Sunday. It may seem something of a puzzle, seeming to be disconnected from the question about faith. Some commentators do suggest that it is a new section of the sayings of Jesus, as given in St. Luke’s Gospel. It is certainly true that the parallel text in St. Matthew’s Gospel only has the first part about faith, for our Lord’s words about being a servant are only found in St. Luke’s Gospel. That being noted, the two parts are certainly intimately bound. Faith teaches us that all we have and are is a pure gift from God. In that sense, we are therefore servants and not the master.

Faith, as a relationship, needs to be fed and to be lived. Like the servants in the Gospel, we do this by loving and serving the Lord, by following and living his commandments. One of the psalms asks: “How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?” The answer to that question is that, like the “unprofitable servants” in the Gospel, we can never repay God for his faithful love for us. However, we should still die trying!