"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.
This passage from the gospel today is an intriguing one because of ways we tend to interpret what it says to us about faith. We understand faith as being somehow foundational to Christianity. However, it seems to me that today's gospel is one that begs for us to read between the lines. What was it that Jesus really wanted to impart to us? For those who will receive it the Lord's words to the apostles offer insight. He lets us see him as the Lord of true faith, and he reveals the real meaning of faith to us.
When I was growing up as a non-Catholic, especially during the time of my life when I was involved in forms of Christianity that we might think of as Evangelical, Pentecostal, or Charismatic, my pastors interpreted the mustard seed passage to say that if we only had a little faith there would be no limitation on the power of God in our lives. So I believed that with faith people could overcome the biggest challenges in life, whether they were financial, educational, or had something to do with relationships or perhaps health, and I believed that through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we could touch the lives of others with healing and hope where they needed it most.
In all of that there's nothing really wrong: it's all well and good; it's what the message of iconic preachers of the faith to whom I looked way back then, such well known televangelist preachers as Oral Roberts, Kenneth Copeland, and John Osteen, among others. It's also the message that I heard from my family—"if you're going through a tough time," my mother would say, "get out your bible and read the mustard seed passage until you believe it…it never fails."
It seems to me that the disciples, when they came to Jesus asking for an increase in faith, were after something similar to the kind of faith preached by televangelists. Perhaps what they wanted to ask was, "Give us the kind of power you have Lord. Increase our faith so that we can do deeds as you do. We want to heal the sick, raise the dead, and walk on water." However, what they got was something quite different from what they were after. Rather than an increase in power, they got a rebuke. For our times Jesus words might have been, "You're like people who give orders to their employers. I need to see something from you. Do your work and don't worry about the kind of faith associated with power. Instead, face life with acceptance and courage. This is real faith. If you want faith, roll up your sleeves and change the world. After all, it's only your duty."
In the second reading, St. Paul's second letter to Timothy, we do hear about the gift of God that is power. However it's the power to face live with courage and the ability to "bear your share of the hardship" that comes with life.
Faith often has more to do with taking life as it is rather than seeking to escape the "as it is" of life by miraculous faith-healer powers. Faith asks us to walk each day with the Holy Spirit as our companion, whether it's a mundane day at work or a day that seems to be from hell. In each of our days we recall that we have prayed "Give us this day" enough for today. As we trust from our place of plenty we recall that there are people in the world who also pray the words "Give us this day our daily bread" whose families don't have enough bread for even one day. They may not pray it with those exact words or in the same language that we pray. They may not pray a Christian prayer or a Catholic prayer, yet they do pray. The knowledge of this too seeks to move us from a place of false spiritual pride to where we can honestly share in the humanity of those who struggle to believe that anyone at all actually cares. Perhaps their outcry their faith is greater than ours as we often struggle to believe without the magnitude of hardship known in places where abject poverty, war, and human exploitation are commonplace.
Something I typically add each time I pray the intercessions at Mass, after praying for those who serve in the military, is to pray for the peacemakers. It's not that I wish to discount or disrespect those who serve in the military. To contrary I honor and respect those who have placed themselves in the way of harm for the security of others as well as those currently doing so now. I recall the heroes of my childhood who had fought in World War II. It's now more that I see the role of peacemaker as a higher calling and I feel a strong kinship to Christian pacifism movements. Peacemaking is more than working to end all wars, though it is that too. Peacemaking is a multidimensional effort that encompasses the struggle for everything from economic justice to environmental justice. It includes a fundamental opposition to every kind of violence against humanity. It is the foundation on which we, as co-workers with God, build a world of justice through faith. Peacemaking is the fruit of faith.
The book of Habakkuk, from which we heard today, is actually one of my favorite sources of biblical literature. It reveals an attitude of faithfulness toward God, as well as God's faithfulness toward us. The words of this prophet Habakkuk strike me deeper than anything else I find in sacred literature. Though Habakkuk is faithful to God, he questions God, "I cry for help but you do not listen," he says. "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." In our times Habakkuk might have gone on to say, "I cry out hunger, I cry out disease, I cry out apathy. I cry out war. I cry out discord and of situations that beg for faithful courage in a world seemingly abandoned to faithlessness." If we want to take it as such, Habakkuk indeed speaks to our times and situations from his time.
God answers Habakkuk "wait." God also answers for us to wait too. We are to wait because faith endures trial. It is proven though hardship. Faith also grows strong through intense labor. Faith faces the rigors of life, and it believes; it does not give up easily. Faith is not like what the world wants it to be. Faith isn't an easy fix, nor is it necessarily a miraculous fix. Faith demands that we hear the word of God, regardless of how hard it may seem to accept it. Faith asks for courage. It asks that we not grow hardhearted because rather than hearing sweet-sounding words, which lull us into a false sense of spirituality, we hear difficult words that invite us to participate in God's mercy, the mercy we approach as we celebrate the banquet of faith, the supper of justice, mercy, and peace.
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