Worcester, MA | Philadelphia, PA | Chaparral, NM
Habakkuk 1: 2-3, 2: 2-4
2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14
Luke 17: 5-10
Awaken Gods gift in you.
The Apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith, as if they feared not being able to follow Him, not being able to respond to his call. Jesus' answer, in the form of a proverb, is at the least, disconcerting: "If you have faith as great as a mustard seed.." The Apostles ask that the gift of God be increased in them and Jesus makes them look at the confidence they have in Him. Faith, He reminds them, is trust in the Father who watches over his creation and who hears their prayers. Its confidence also in the power of Jesus. Several times, Jesus has showed those who come to Him that faith is the cause of their salvation when it is trusting and resolute abandonment to God: Your faith has saved you, (cf. 7, 50 ; 8, 48). Without faith there will be no miracles. Faith is trust, confidence and, as such, makes us participate in the divine power. It can effect miraculous things. Paul, in his turn, says the same thing: You should awaken the gift of God within yourself, the gift you received when I laid hands on you. For it is not a spirit of fear that God has given us, but a spirit of strength, of love and of intelligence.
Thus Jesus asks us to have faith in what we can obtain by faith. And if with a little faith, we can obtain unbelievable results, then we should have all the more reason to believe that we shall be able to fulfill our vocation as servants of God Faith is the trusting relationship in the Lord that makes us capable of undergoing trials, of proclaiming the Gospel with the strength of God and of taking on Christs way of being and acting. Christ, who did not claim his right of being treated as the equal of God (Phil 2, 4). Let us pray for one another that we draw on the gift of God in ourselves.
—Sr. Sophie Ramond, RA