20221002 FAITH AS AN UNSELFISH AND TRUSTING FIDELITY TO GOD
02 October, 2022, Sunday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Habakkuk 1:2-3,2:2-4 © |
The upright man will live by his faithfulness
How long, O Lord, am I to cry for help
while you will not listen;
to cry ‘Oppression!’ in your ear
and you will not save?
Why do you set injustice before me,
why do you look on where there is tyranny?
Outrage and violence, this is all I see,
all is contention, and discord flourishes.
Then the Lord answered and said,
‘Write the vision down,
inscribe it on tablets
to be easily read,
since this vision is for its own time only:
eager for its own fulfilment, it does not deceive;
if it comes slowly, wait,
for come it will, without fail.
See how he flags, he whose soul is not at rights,
but the upright man will live by his faithfulness.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 94(95):1-2,6-9 © |
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Second reading |
2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14 © |
Never be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord
I am reminding you to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but with me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God.
Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Gospel Acclamation | 1S3:9,Jn6:68 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Speak, Lord, your servant is listening:
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Or: | 1P1:25 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of the Lord remains for ever.
What is this word?
It is the Good News that has been brought to you.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 17:5-10 © |
Say, 'We are merely servants'
The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘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.
‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.”’
FAITH AS AN UNSELFISH AND TRUSTING FIDELITY TO GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [HAB 1:2-3,2:2-4; 2 TIM 1:6-8,13-14; LK 17:5-10]
“How long, Lord, am I to cry for help while you will not listen”. Yes, the cries of the prophet are also our cries. How often have we experienced suffering and injustices in our lives and found ourselves helpless?
In such a situation, many lose hope and faith in God and even in their fellowman. Some even give up their faith because their prayers are not answered. But this is an infantile faith because such faith seeks only to be served and for one’s selfish benefit instead of serving God. Others react by relying on themselves. They use their own human ingenuity and strength to overcome their problems. But more often than not, their short-sightedness causes them more problems in the long run. In such a situation, what must we do?
The response that is required of us is faith – a strong faith in God. Like the apostles, we need to beg the Lord to “increase our faith.” We must continue to have faith in God who can do much more than what we imagine or can do by our own human effort. That is why Jesus says that if our faith is that of the size of the mustard seed, we could uproot the mulberry tree and plant it in the sea. Does it mean therefore that if we have faith in Jesus, we can make God do whatever we want Him to do? Is this the kind of faith that Jesus is speaking about? Certainly this cannot be the kind of faith, Jesus is talking about. If it is true, God will be at our mercy.
The truth is that when Jesus says that faith can change situations, He does not mean that we can change the mind of God. Rather, faith changes our mind. Faith changes our perspective of life. To have faith in God is not so much a question of asking God to do our will, rather, it is to do His will. This is what the unprofitable servant sought to do. True faith is a faithful service in obedience to His will. Yes, like the unprofitable servant in today’s gospel, we are called to simply do what we can; and after having done what we could, we must say, “we are merely servants; we have done no more than our duty.”
Indeed, we must consider ourselves simply as God’s servants carrying out His will in the world. Hence, we must work for God without any expectation of reward. To be able to do His work and to serve God is in itself the greatest reward. A faithful servant is one who carries out what God wants of Him. He has no other wish.
Performing our duty and responsibilities faithfully in obedience to His will is the best testimony to truth. This is what a mature faith is all about: we do what is good and right; not what we can get out of it. The joy of living righteously, of being faithful and consistent in our words and actions even when misunderstood or rejected is the greatest reward. Anyone who does what is right and follows his conscience will have God by his side. He will also find deep peace and freedom because he knows that he has been faithful both to himself and to God. Indeed, as the first reading tells us, the “upright man will live by his faithfulness” but the one whose soul is not at rights will flag.
Of course, such faith entails absolute trust in the divine wisdom and providence of God. Faith is to be faithful to God in good times and in bad, trusting in His wisdom and love even when all things seem to work against us. Faith in God ultimately also believes that God will deliver and vindicate us. This is the kind of faith that the scriptures speak about. Once we have sincerely done all we could, according to our situation, we need not feel guilty that we have not done enough. We can leave everything to God who works according to His plan. This is what St Paul also advised Timothy. We must rely on the power of God. The unfortunate reality is that instead of relying on the power of God, most of us take things into our own hands. We do not trust God enough to let Him lead the way. How then do we acquire such a faith?
Firstly, we need to acquire the vision of God, as the Prophet tells us in the first reading. And what is this vision? It is this: that His plans will unfold gradually and hence we must be patient and wait. God’s vision will come to its fulfilment in its own time, as the prophet says, “come it will, without fail.” We can be certain that even in the ups and downs of life, somehow God will manage and things will turn out to be just right. God has everything in His control and He can afford to wait for us to repent and change. Hence, we must not be impatient but learn to wait. The problem for us is that many of us cannot wait. We cannot allow things to unfold by themselves. We want to take immediate action, especially when we do not see the results as forthcoming. Yet the truth is that many things in life take time to develop. We must allow nature to co-operate with God’s grace.
Secondly, our fidelity to our work, vocation or principles must be rooted in a greater fidelity, that is to the gospel that has been given to us. This is what Paul told Timothy, “Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” The gospel must be our guide and the source of our inspiration in keeping our faith. The more we understand the gospel, the more we see the wisdom of God in our lives. In this way, our conviction of God’s providential love will grow and we will see that the Good News proclaimed by Jesus is true: He loves us unconditionally. Only then, can we be like Paul who is able to “bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News.”
Thirdly, we need “to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you” as Paul told Timothy. Yes, all of us have been given at our baptism the Spirit of power and love. If we are timid in our beliefs and our convictions, it is because we have not fanned the Spirit of love and power in our lives. Consequently, we must strengthen ourselves spiritually. We must be recharged with His power and love. Without a God-experience, we forget what we are really called to do. Without an experience of His power in us, we will find ourselves incapable of facing such trials in life. But with a deeper experience of His love, we will be able to withstand all onslaughts in life because we know that God is with us; and that ultimately His Kingdom will triumph over evil and injustice.
That is why Paul says that only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we remain faithful to the gospel. However, many of us have forgotten about our God-experiences. It is not that we do not have them. All of us have them in different degrees and in different ways. In fact if we review our lives, we will realize that many times we have experienced God helping us in critical situations. The very fact that we are still alive today means that God has always been taking care of us. But we have forgotten them. This is analogous to our human relationships as well. Very often, we break a relationship simply because of one betrayal or a mistake that our good friend has made. We forget all those other good things that he or she has done for us.
It is important that we take a more global perspective of a relationship, whether it is with God or with our friends. For this reason, we need to rekindle the ways God has touched our lives. We can rekindle the love of God for us only through prayer, reading the scriptures and Christian fellowship. In this way, our faith in His Love will grow each day, not only intellectually but personally as well.
Yes, with such a firm faith in God, in His power, love and His divine plan, we can rest assured that so long as we are faithful in service to the end, we will find peace and joy. As Mother Teresa said, God calls us to be faithful, not to be successful. It is fidelity to our calling, to the truth and the gospel that will give us deep joy and peace, not success. What the world deems as successful can very well be failure to God and to ourselves. What is the use of being successful when we lose our peace?
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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