By Fr Francis Gonsalves, SJ –
27th Sunday of the Year – Cycle C – 6 Oct. 2019—[1st Sunday of Extraord. Missionary Month] Readings: Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4; 2 Tim 1:6-8, 13-14; Lk 17:5-10
“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’” (Lk 17:5)
Three Scriptural Signposts:
1. Since this is the first Sunday of the ‘Extraordinary Missionary Month’, it would be apt not only to reflect upon the main theme of today’s readings, namely, faith leading to service, but also to connect it to our ‘missionary service’. Each of the three readings points to one dimension of faith, which, taken in tandem, tell us about the demands of mission and the commitment needed by all of us who are called to be ‘missionaries’.
In the first reading Habakkuk—who wrote about 600 B.C. a little before the Babylonian invasion of Judah and the siege of the city of Jerusalem—complains to Yahweh. Things couldn’t have been worse since, first, the Assyrians, and then the Babylonians, ravaged their territories. Besides these ‘external enemies’ there are the ‘internal’ ones, who are even worse. The kings had turned away from God and were worshipping idols, with the people following them.
Moreover, the rich were trampling over the poor, leading to economic inequality and social unrest. Amidst the darkness and doom, Habakkuk pleads: “How long, Lord, am I to cry for help while you will not listen?” He is given Yahweh’s answer: God will intervene but in God’s way, God’s time. The last punchline is lovely: “The upright wo/man will live by her/his faith!” The nuance of ‘faith’ here (‘emunah) is ‘steadfast loyalty’—i.e., obeying God’s word even when it pays no dividends and when one endures many difficulties.
2. During the previous three Sundays we heard Paul instructing his disciple, Timothy, to guide the community under his care. In today’s second reading, Paul specifically advises him to “fan into a flame the gift that God has given you.” This letter is written around the year 66 or 67 AD, while Paul is spending his second and final term in a prison in Rome, nearing his impending death.
Undaunted by his captivity and courageous to the core, Paul reminds Timothy: “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” Paul refers to the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit, most fundamental among which is ‘faith’. Timothy is exhorted to fan/foster the faith and to give witness to it even at the cost of enduring great hardships. It is important to note that the Holy Spirit is not simply an external force poured out upon us from ‘above’, so to say, but is an internal power and protector “living in us” (v.14): The Divine Indweller!
3. Today’s gospel passage contains exhortations about (a) faith, and, (b) service. The apostles’ plea: “Increase our faith” (v.5) comes immediately after Jesus’ warning to beware of temptations to faith. The apostles must have realized that Jesus had unwavering faith in his Abba. When Jesus tells us that faith can move mulberry trees and mountains (Mt 21:21; Mk 11:23), he doesn’t expect us to go around commanding trees to be uprooted and mountains to be levelled.
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However, Jesus does expect us to allow God to make the impossible possible—with our cooperation, of course! The gospel’s second parable is related to the first since it warns the disciples against supposing that faith, and service to God whereby faith is expressed, must be rewarded. Jesus says: “When you’ve done all you have been told to do, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty’!” Why should a servant expect gratitude and gifts when he is being paid wages? In Jesus’ time, masters owned their slaves just as one would own goods. Hence, there was no question of gratitude; the slave was obliged to slog from morn to night. So must it be for us, God’s servants, who must devote our whole being to serving God, and God’s people.
Two Tidbits from Tradition in 1919 and 2019:
Benedict XV, in Maximum Illud, Nov. 30, 1919 [n.41]: “As we look into the future, we seem to hear the Lord’s voice, urging us to “Launch out into the deep water” (Lk 5:4), as He urged Peter long ago. Our paternal charity spurs us to the work of leading into His welcoming arms the multitudes now living with us in this world. For the Church is sustained by the Spirit of God, and under the influence of this Spirit she remains always strong and vigorous. Then too, the work of the thousands of apostolic men (sic) who have labored in the past and are laboring now to promote her growth cannot fail to have its effect. Their example will attract numerous others to imitate them, and to go out, supported by the generosity and devotion of the good Christian people, to reap for Christ a rich harvest of souls.”
Pope Francis, in his Message announcing the ‘Extraordinary Missionary Month’: “Dear brothers and sisters, for the month of October 2019, I have asked that the whole Church revive her missionary awareness and commitment as we commemorate the centenary of the Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud of Pope Benedict XV (30 Nov. 1919). Its farsighted and prophetic vision of the apostolate has made me realize once again the importance of renewing the Church’s missionary commitment and giving fresh evangelical impulse to her work of preaching and bringing to the world the salvation of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again. The title of the present message is the same as that of October’s Missionary Month: Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World. Celebrating this month will help us first to rediscover the missionary dimension of our faith in Jesus Christ, a faith graciously bestowed on us in baptism. Our filial relationship with God is not something simply private, but always in relation to the Church.”
In Lighter Vein:
Cynical Cyril once read today’s gospel where Jesus says, “Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Itching to test God, one night just before sleeping, he gazed out of the window and ordered a tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea!” Then he fell asleep. Next morn, he saw the tree still standing there. “I already knew that this would happen!” grumbled Cyril, whose faith wasn’t likely to move anything—not even himself, leave alone trees and mountains!
A True Story of Faith in Oneself:
Dasharath Manjhi—known as ‘Mountain Man’—lost his wife, Falguni Devi, on the way to hospital since circumventing a mountain took 6 hours and they couldn’t reach hospital on time. Dasharath’s love for his wife made him slog singlehandedly with hammer and chisel for 22 long years to break open a mountain passage 360-feet-long, 30-feetwide and 25-feet-high that now enables villagers to reach the faraway hospital in less than an hour. Manjhi’s labour of love reduces the distance between Atri and Wazirganj from 55 kms to 10 kms!
Do you have faith in yourself? In others? In God? In mother nature? If not, let’s pray, “Lord, increase my/our faith!”
Fr. Francis Gonsalves is a Gujarat Jesuit, former Principal of Vidyajyoti College, Delhi, and currently Dean of Theology at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. He is also the Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. He has authored many books and articles and is a columnist with The Asian Age and The Deccan Chronicle national dailies.