Gospel for Sunday, October 3:
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
The Lord replied,
"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to the mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.
"Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
'Come here immediately and take your place at table'?
Would he not rather say to him,
'Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished'?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'"
__________
It is no secret that we, as a society, have come to like big things. We gawk at large wrapped packages addressed to us as if it is infinitely better than a smaller package, though we have no idea what's inside. We like Venti coffees, extra large pizzas, walk-in closets, big screen TV's, and buying in bulk. We have adapted the mentality that bigger IS better though we may not finish our Venti coffee, the pizza will probably be packed up as leftovers, we may not have enough clothes to fill the walk-in closet, and the game we watch on the 73" TV is goin gto have the same plays and calls on the 20" TV. So what does it matter?!
The apostles fell into a very similar trap in this week's Gospel. They said it to Jesus, "Increase our faith," as if He would just snap his fingers to give them greater faith. One wonders why they desired MORE faith when they already had faith to begin with. Jesus responds to them by saying, "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." In other words, "The size of your faith doesn't matter! Even with the smallest amount of faith you can do great things!" Faith is faith-you either have it or you don't.
In the second part of the Gospel, Jesus compares the apostles to servants, saying "When a servant comes in from tending the fields, you would say to him 'Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished.' Then you would thank him." In my reflecting on this Gospel, it seems that Jesus has two messages to share. The first is that things are not just granted to us, but rather worked for. We must be diligent in our duties if we want to obtain something as a result. However, (and this leads me to his second message) we should not do things out of pride or extreme self-indulgence, but rather for the glory of God.
In our Christian life, we are called to be servants of the Lord; not slaves to ourselves. It is so easy to get caught up in the quantity of everything. We feel we need to be more holy, more faithful, or just better because there are other people who are just so much holier, more faithful, or better than us—and we want others to notice we can be bigger and better. We often become more concerned with what others see us as than what God sees us as. It is at this point that we stop serving God and begin to serve ourselves. While it is important to realize where we fall short spiritually, it is just as important to remember that with faithfulness and holiness, you either have it or you don’t; quantity is irrelevant. God doesn’t call us to be the MOST faithful; He just calls us to be faithful. So let us always keep God the focus of our lives so that we can be the simply faithful servants He calls us to be. And let us never become proud or seek glory for ourselves when we follow God’s commands, but rather look at our obedience to His will as our obligation to the God who loves us unconditionally.
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