TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
6 OCTOBER 2019
On
the way to Jerusalem, Jesus has been telling his disciples that he will be
betrayed, suffer terribly, be put to death on a cross, and then raised from the
dead. He has not minced words with them
about the demands of being a disciple. They
have been eating with sinners, much to the chagrin of the religious
leaders. As sinners themselves, they are
expected to share that same mercy with others, as the characters of his
parables have been doing: going after
the lost sheep, or the lost coin, or the lost son. They are to consider all their possessions as
gifts from God and be willing to share them.
They cannot ignore Lazarus sitting at their gates. They must be careful about causing little
ones to stumble, and they must forgive without bounds.
Realizing the
difficulty of being a good disciple, the Apostles ask Jesus to increase their
faith. He tells them that their faith is
sufficient, even if it is the size of a mustard seed. Mustard seeds are very tiny and seem
insignificant. But, once those seeds are
planted and nourished, they produce plants that serve our needs. In other words, Jesus assures his Apostles
that they already have faith. Faith is a
response to God’s initiative. They have
already responded to his initiative, to his calling them to follow him. Their faith has allowed them to deepen their
relationship with him, even if they do not understand everything he says.
Even though
their faith may be as small as a mustard seed, they must plant that seed of
faith and become humble servants. The
twelve will eventually become the leaders of his Church established by the blood
and water poured from his wounded side on the cross. They are to take their faith and put it into
action – not looking for titles and honor, but being humble servants. They must become unprofitable servants,
trusting that their work of humble service is ultimately the work of the One
who called them and trusting that they may not see the immediate results.
The words
of Jesus are reminders to us, the current religious leaders of the Church. We are not called to profit from our positions
of leadership, but to continue to serve tirelessly the needs of the Church. But his words also apply to all his baptized disciples.
The actor Will
Smith tells the story of a man who owned a bakery. In front of the bakery was a wall 16 feet
high and 30 feet long. One day, for
reasons he did not explain, he demolished it and told his 12-year old son and
his brother Harry to rebuild it. The
boys were stunned. It seemed like an
impossible task. But, every day, after
school, they mixed concrete and laid brick upon brick. After a year and a half of work, they laid
the final brick and stood back to examine the new wall. Their father told them, “Now, don’t you ever
tell me that you can’t do something.” That boy was Will Smith himself, and he has
never forgotten his father’s lesson.
As we have
learned from building this physical church brick by brick, we are living stones
being built by the Lord into a beautiful structure, with Jesus Christ as our
capstone and the Apostles as our foundation.
We have responded to the Lord’s initiative and are growing in
relationship with him and with each other.
Even if our faith is as small as a mustard seed, our acts of humble
service make a difference. It might
involve getting involved in one of our many ministries. It might involve sitting with a fellow
student in the lunch room who usually sits alone. It is easy to get discouraged. The Prophet Habakkuk voices discouragement
well when he complains to God that evil people seem to prosper, while the just
do not. Just as God told him to keep
faith and wait, Saint Paul tells us the same thing through his letter to
Timothy. God has not given us a spirit
of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self-control. We use those gifts to build up the Body of
Christ with humble service, one brick at a time!
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