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TH ORDINARY SUNDAY, 2016
Hag 1:2-3, 2:2-4; 2Tim 1:6-8,13-14; Lk 17:5-10 INCREASE OUR FAITH… Faith is an essential element for our Christian life.
It is like a heart to our whole life. It is not a simple belief but something beyond it.
Faith is that to hope with confidence, of the things that we can’t see. Heb.11/1 - “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”
In today’s Gospel the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith! The necessity for their request is:
the series of Jesus’ teachings confused them and they are highly difficult to accept for a common man. As his teachings go:
a)It appears almost impossible for rich people to enter into paradise.
b) the people who divorce, even if they marry again are committing adultery;
c) causing someone to sin is liable for death penalty;
d) Jesus’ own suffering and death in the hands of chief priests and elders; leave the apostles in a state of confusion.
Added to this confusion he says
to forgive neighbor not seven times but seventy times seven which means to forgive unconditionally. This is really indigestible to them. Because till that moment they are depending upon the Mosaic Law
which spells the principle given by God as an eye for eye, tooth for tooth etc. Now all of sudden to forgive a person uncountable in the same day is a shock for them.
They are in a state neither they
think as improper teaching that Jesus could say something wrong nor
accept as is possible. It is here they realize
that their faith is deficient. Hence they ask him to increase their faith in him and in his teachings.
QUALITY OF FAITH…There is no increase or decrease in faith. There is no difference in the quantity of faith. What matters is, whether we have the faith or not; whether it is present or absent; and the quality of faith.
That is why Jesus tells them if you have faith as small as
mustard seed…you can order the
mulberry tree to be up rooted!!!!!!
OUR FAITH… is very often is like our cell phone signals. It is on and off.
When we recall the incident of St Peter walking on the waters: he walked as long as he had the faith in Jesus. After a while when he also believed in the power of the storm that’s coming towards him the faith in Jesus disappeared. As a result he began to sink but soon he realized the absence of faith and shouted Lord! Save me.
We are no better than him. When everything is comfortable we have faith. If something goes wrong, when things turn to be bad, when injustice is done to us, when we are sinking in the problems one after the other, then we are lost. We will not be able to adjust to the existing situations.
We see in the first reading: the prophet Habakkuk who lived in 6
th cent. B.c. is very uncomfortable in midst of
the people of violence, destruction, ruin and misery while on the other side the persecution by the Babylonian king prevails. But God tells him:
THE JUST SHALL LIVE BECAUSE OF HIS FAITH! The story is told of a man who fell off a mountain cliff. Half-way down the cliff he succeeds in grabbing a branch of a tree. There he is, hanging on the branch, unable to pull himself up, yet knowing, that letting go of the branch he would definitely fall to his death. Suddenly the man gets an idea. He looks up to heaven and shouts, “Is anyone up there?” A voice comes from heaven, “Yes, I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe in me?” The man shouts back, “Yes, Lord, I believe in you. I really believe. Please help me.” The Lord says, “All right! If you really believe in me you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Now let go of the branch.” The man thinks about it for a moment and then shouts back, “Is anyone else up there?” Faith for our deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether we are delivered now or not, we stick on to our
belief that God loves and cares for us. This is the mistake of the young man caught in the mountain cliff. He has faith in his own deliverance, not in God infinite power to save and unfailing love for him.
God’s unconditional love for us demands only one proper response from us, our unconditional love and service of God. So,
many of us Christians today believe that true and mature faith consists in our ability to obtain miracles from God.
The truth that today’s gospel shows us is that mature faith consists not in how much God attends to our immediate needs but in how willing we are to serve God unconditionally, where faith is actualized. As St James puts it in his letter “faith without works is dead”
The author of the letter to the Hebrews very clearly tells in 11
th Chapter, how the people from Abal to Abraham lived in faith.
It is time for us to reflect how we do live our faith. The big difference between us and the apostles is:
very often we feel that we are keeping our faith alright while the apostles see themselves as their faith lacks something. We need to sit and sort out in the past one year at least
what are incidents that prove my faith is present in my life and what are the incidents that prove the absence of my faith. Knowing where we stand in the life of our faith is most important. As the saying goes,
he who does not know, and does not know that he does not know, is a fool. But he who does not know, and knows that he does not know, is a wise man.
We are also at difficulty in following the teachings of Jesus, the Gospel values and the pattern of the Church as we have reflected in the past weeks.
As the Apostles took steps to improve their faith by asking Jesus, we also need to take some steps to improve or strengthen our faith. As Jesus is available for them, so many opportunities are available for us. Hence we need to check how we were able to approach them.
Let us see,
how many retreats, seminars or bible study classes have we attended? How many books have we read?
Are we regular to Sunday Mass being attentive to the homilies,
the Sacrament of Confession, recitation of the Rosary
and other daily small, small prayers?
These are means through which the Lord improves or strengthens our faith
. Then we will be able to follow all that he commanded us to serve and love Him with an unwavering faith. ++++++++++++ -Fr. John Raju Email: [email protected] Phone: (local) 8455233242