If we had to summarize much of what the readings are trying to teach us through the Liturgy of the Word, we would have to say that when times are tough we have to continue living and we must have and keep faith. This might sound like hope, so let’s compare faith and hope. Consider faith as God’s gift of himself, his love, to us and our response to that gift. Hope is the expectation of a better future, which we have because we have faith.
The Old Testament and gospel readings hardly seem like good news. In the former, the people are at the lowest in their lives, they are absolutely desperate. In the latter, Jesus is essentially chewing out his disciples. The Old Testament reading is very unpleasant. There is a lot of pain being expressed by the author. Faith isn’t going to take away this pain, but it will help him live through it; therefore, he can continue to pray to God. His faith gives him courage to continue to live in a responsible manner. From his tone and his prayer we can believe that he is sincere. His faith doesn’t make him arrogant and demanding but hopeful. Arrogance only leads to mistakes, sincerity leads to holiness.
Two questions seem to jump out at us from the gospel. These are, ‘how do we get faith?’ and ‘how do we keep faith, that is, how do we remain faithful?’. First recognize that faith is a gift and part of our response is to pray. Prayer is the door to where God is present. To keep and use faith can be expressed to a quote from C.S. Lewis. He said, ‘I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun----not only because I see it, but because I see everything else by it.” Look at life and all its events through the eyes of faith, through that personal relationship with God, and life will be livable and hope will be possible.
When we tackle the good news of the gospel message, things get a little bit muddied. Frequently people speak of the power of faith. And faith is powerful. We can’t deny this fact. We should, however, feel or sense something more is involved in this interchange between Jesus and the disciples. Go back to the idea that the disciples were having a really difficult time at this point in Jesus’ ministry. They approach Jesus and basically say, ‘Hey Jesus, we are still staying with you and it is tough. How about a little extra help so we can continue to be with you but in a little less demanding manner? You can ease our burden by increasing our faith.”
There is nothing wrong with asking or praying for faith and an increase in faith. I highly recommend it. But what the disciples couldn’t yet grasp, and what we frequently don’t grasp is that faith isn’t sedentary. It is dynamic, active, alive, and demanding. And Jesus points this out to them I an everyday activity that they witnessed every day in their social structure. He uses this activity to illustrate that if they simply lived the faith they had, their expectations would change and they would sense a purpose to life he called them to.
Jesus uses the master-servant example. The servant, whether hired or slave, was expected to do certain chores for the master. These chores were part of the condition of the situation. In the case of a hired person, some sort of compensations was given and no further action was necessary. In the case of the slave, a very unfortunate situation, the social structure of the day made it very plain that the slave was to serve, not be served. We might use someone employed by the Lab as an example. The Lab employee is paid to perform a certain function. Performing the function well doesn’t mean the employee can expect a bonus. He or she is expected to perform well and do the job for which he or she is paid.
Usually we think of the servant and the slave as poor, and chances are very good that they were poor. The good news is that they are called to the kingdom in a special, preferential manner. Part of that call includes the fact that they cannot see themselves as pure victims. They also must meet the demands of discipleship. Just as the disciples and the master must meet the minimum requirements for entering the kingdom, so must they. These demands are simple but not easy. They are “forgive” and “repent.” Forgive and repent. Together they are the tiny seed that can move mountains.
MAY GOD BLESS US ALL