Faith

Vincent Van Gogh, Mulberry Tree, 1889.

The 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

In Luke’s gospel today, Jesus talks about faith. He tells the apostles that if they had faith no bigger than the size of a mustard seed—the tiniest of all seeds—they could order a mulberry tree—which, by the way, can grow to 80 feet tall—to uproot itself and be replanted in the sea. Matthew’s more familiar version of the story says that we could move a mountain if we just had this same speck of faith.

Lots of times, people conclude that what Jesus means is simply that we must have more faith. We might look at our own life and use this little bit of scripture to criticize our own lack of faith, or even someone else’s: God didn’t answer my prayers, because my faith wasn’t strong enough; God didn’t heal Joe’s illness, because his faith wasn’t great enough; Mary didn’t get the job she wanted, because her faith wasn’t enough...

But that interpretation can’t really be true. Think about a child who believed in Santa Claus. He figured that if he believed enough, he’d get what he wanted for Christmas. And every Christmas morning, his stocking would be filled! The only problem was, there was no man in a red suit living at the North Pole… and eventually this kid found that out. Maybe for a time he pretended to believe, and his parents kept filling his stocking… but we can’t fake our belief in Santa forever.

Exactly the same way, we can’t go on forever “faking” our faith in God. For a while, we might come to church, pray, or do other religious things… but unless our faith and our belief are genuine, we’ll eventually get tired of playing the game.

Now, Jesus never commands us, or even calls us, to do something that’s impossible. So when he says we should have faith, he doesn’t mean for us to fake it or just engage in seriously wishful thinking. No, faith is real… or at the very least, it can be. And it not something that comes in various quantities. There’s no “trial size” or a Sam’s Club super-economy size. Like an on-and-off switch, it’s either there or it isn’t… so a “mustard seed’s worth” of faith is plenty—all you need—if it’s real.

Real faith will not fill the Christmas stocking of a poor child, but it might lead us to do so, because caring for children is something we can do. Faith may not help us to move a literal mountain into the sea, but it certainly can strengthen us enough to remove the rubble of a collapsed building to find survivors or bodies; just think of the World Trade Center, or New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, or the tsunami tragedy in southeast Asia.

The “unprofitable servant” imagery in the gospel passage might put us off a little, but the point is, we can do what God calls us to do. Saying that we don’t have enough faith is an excuse. It’s just a cheap attempt to put the blame on God.

Like the disciples, we probably can’t cast out demons or even rid the world of terrorists, as much as we might like to. We can’t save souls either. Only God can do that.

But what we can do is love one another… care for each other… help folks in their needs… and even forgive each other’s trespasses against us. If we couldn’t do these things, Jesus wouldn’t have commanded it of us.

So actually, even if we have a too-small heart like the Grinch’s, we still have faith that is sufficient. It’s our willingness that may not be.

I remember many occasions as a snotty, bratty kid, that I would refuse to do something to my parent’s consternation and exasperation: I wouldn’t try some food, or I wouldn’t be willing to play some game or sport, or I wouldn’t step out of my very sheltered comfort zone to take any sort of risk. Finally, after considerable pleading, I might give in… and guess what? I found that I actually enjoyed the experience! Faith often works like that, too. You might think you don’t have any—or not enough—but if you simply acted as though you did, you might be very surprised at the outcome… at the good you could accomplish!

If there’s an important lesson here, it might be that our own inertia or fear may be the biggest obstacle to finding our faith and putting it into action. The servant in the gospel knew he had a job: to serve the master. It didn’t matter whether he was hungry or tired or didn’t particularly feel like it that day. It was his job and his duty to perform. If we regarded our faith like our life’s responsibility, we would definitely be moving in the right direction… the direction our Lord is pointing out to us.

Let’s begin today by praying for ourselves and each other that the mustard seed of faith inside all of us will be energized and set free and put into practice, starting right here and now. I’ll be on the lookout for flying mulberry trees.