Twenty seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Occasions for stumbling are still to come”. (Luke 17.2)

As we reflect on today’s Gospel narrative, St. Luke would not want us to forget that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where he would “undergo great suffering and be killed and rise again on the seventh day”. (Luke 9. 21)

Only slowly were the disciples and apostles coming to understand Jesus’s words about his suffering and death which would see the completion of the journey to Jerusalem.  Equally as slow was their realisation that the call to discipleship was not going to be easy: “So therefore, none of you can be my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions”. And it wasn’t only possessions; it was family members and life itself. (Luke 14.25)

Jesus had gradually and gently disclosed the fact that discipleship would ‘cost’ and, in the words of Paul, “cost everything”. In their work to continue his ministry – evidenced in the Acts of the Apostles – “Occasions of stumbling are bound to come”, as Jesus says immediately before today’s narrative. Discipleship would be a tough call.

For the apostles, who were emerging as significant leaders, the task that Jesus had given them was daunting to put it mildly. And so, they come to Jesus in today’s Gospel and say, “Increase our faith”. That faith would eventually lead most of them to martyrdom. But they knew that they need help from God to persevere.

To increase something is already to have it, as Jesus recognised, so he says in response “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”.

The challenge and cost of discipleship for the apostles and disciples was immense and the challenge for the Christian in our own time is the same. In the face of the multiplicity of difficulties that face present day disciples and apostles, faith in the presence and action of Jesus is crucial. And it is not a question of having a lot of faith it is a question of using the faith we have to “fan into flame the gift that God gave you”, as St. Paul puts it. (Timothy 1.6)

The gift of faith is about bearing the “hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God.” (Timothy 1.8) It is about living our daily lives with the conviction that the Holy Spirit is with us and that the power which he gives will make us fruitful in all we do for the sake of the Gospel.

How are we to do that?

Faith teaches us that we are merely servants and that we are one with Jesus in his ministry of service. (See John 13.1-11) A service which is about making present and visible the Good News which Jesus is, through the depth and quality of our love.

Faith teaches us that our lives as Christians are about being always grateful for the privilege of being one with Jesus in his work of making God’s love a reality in the world. It is this sense of privilege that must fill us with hope and joy. It is not about, as Luke consistently teaches, power, possessions, pleasure, status or reputation.

Our tradition teaches us that an aspect of faith is an occasional, or sometimes long lasting, sense of God’s absence. This can take many forms like a search for identity, despair, difficulty in prayer or finding it impossible and even frustration with the Catholic Church or rejection of it. While it is hard to understand, St. Therese of Lisieux saw these times as a ‘great mercy’ and as moments when we are called to persevere in trust even when the Lord seems far away.

And, as Jesus makes clear in the Gospel, faith opens our lives and actions to the possibility of benefitting from the immense power of the Holy Spirit.  While we may not be in the business of planting mulberry bushes in the sea or moving mountains, faith and trust in Jesus will reward us with unexpected and surprising miracles.

Importantly faith is a gift that lives in community and is nurtured by living in a community. That is why our weekly celebration of the Sunday Eucharist and our continual reflection on the Word which is proclaimed, and which nourishes us, is so crucial.

As important aspect of opening our lives to the power of faith is willingness to let go. To lose our lives in order to find them. Faith brings the realisation that life is a journey in which dying and rising are continual realities. The Cross teaches us the way to live and the way to love.

And a final thought. Many are deeply concerned about the state of the world and the many conflicts that are causing untold human misery and suffering. Part of the concern is the thought that there is nothing we can do about it. Two things occur to me. Firstly, that Jesus is with those who are suffering and, in a sense, he shares their suffering. Secondly, as disciples, we have a responsibility to pray and work for peace, and in that prayer to unite ourselves with those who are victims of the various acts of war and violence.

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