Dear Parish Family,
The Liturgy of the Word on this 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time invites us to reflect on the sacredness of our daily lives. It calls us to find God in our faithfulness to daily duties. The readings invite us to live by faith.
The first reading is from Prophet Habakkuk. This book was written during a very difficult time in the history of Israel (7thCentBC), just before the Babylonian Exile (598 BC). One of the central themes in this book of Habakkuk can be summarized in the lines that we heard read in the first reading of today: “The upright man will live by his faithfulness” (Hab 2:4). And in the Gospel today, Jesus suggests that we can merit the Kingdom of God by the fulfilment of our ordinary, daily duties done with a little faith, even if that faith is only as big as a mustard seed. It is faith that converts ordinary things of daily life into extraordinary signs of the Kingdom of God. Jesus says, “When you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty”.
This message sounds discordant in comparison to all the messages of the business world and better yourself books. Rarely would someone in popular media speak about holiness. Yet we are paying a high price through death and destruction by just not grasping this concept which is intrinsically wired into human psyche. Holiness consists in the fulfilment of our duties with a great devotion. Much before the 2nd Vatican Council that called all Christians to a life of holiness, St Francis wrote, “It is not merely an error but a heresy to suppose that a devout life (holiness) is necessarily banished from the soldier’s camp, the merchant’s shop, the prince’s court, or the domestic hearth”.
The Gospel text of today begins with the request of the apostles to Jesus: “Increase our faith.” And Jesus replies, “If you had faith like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you”. Often people quote these lines implying that if you had enough faith you could perform a show of miracles. This could well be the case. However, in the lines that follow Jesus seems to imply something else. He talks about the fulfilment of duties. So, is Jesus saying, if we had faith like a mustard seed our ordinary activities of daily life could become extraordinary!
When we add faith to our daily work, we begin to participate in the creative and redemptive work of God. A parent’s words may not directly save a child, but it is the sacrifice that the parent makes in faith, in working for the child, that could contribute to the wellbeing of the child in the sight of God. You might ask: Now, how do I add faith to my daily tasks? Simple: by raising my mind and heart to God. Imagine this for a while: We are like actors in a play. The ending of the story has already been written and it is a happy one. We know that we will triumph in the end, just as we know that we will have some rocky scenes before that ending. If we keep that in mind, we can more patiently bear the seeming death-dealing tragedies that befall us. We are being held unconditionally by God, the source of life itself. This is the faith that we are held by an all-knowing and all-loving God every step of the way. We must be like children jumping into car and trusting the driving skills of the parent at the wheel even in the most gruesome trip. Like them too, we can enjoy the sights and sounds, with some surprising bumps and jolts. Trust/Faith is the key to the serenity in the turbulence of life, deeply conscious of our connection to the Divine. Unlike the children though, we need not keep asking, “Are we there yet?” Faith makes us wait without restlessness for God’s timing!