Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 17:5-10
October 2, 2022 | Sunday

Today’s Gospel

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” And the Lord said,“If you have faith, even the size of a mustard seed, you may say to this tree, ‘Be uprooted, and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it will obey you.

Who among you would say to your servant, coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Go ahead and have your dinner’? No, you tell him, ‘Prepare my dinner. Put on your apron, and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink afterward.’ Do you thank this servant for doing what you told him to do? I don’t think so. And therefore, when you have done all that you have been told to do, you should say, ‘We are no more than servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Today’s Reflection:

Jesus in our gospel responded to the demand of his apostles to increase their faith (Lk. 15:5). This seems to be incongruous on their part since as they must have been with Jesus for a long time,  they had already been trained by him about faith which is necessary to discipleship. After he called them to follow him (Lk. 5:1-6) and named them his apostles (Lk. 6:12-19), he instructed them about  their supposed way of life (Lk. 6:20-49). With them, he showed the liberating action of God by performing miraculous act of healing (Lk. 7:1-17), by forgiving the outcast and sinners in the society (Lk. 7:36-8:3), by preaching the kingdom of God (Lk. 8:4-21). He gave them power and authority to share in his mission (Lk.9:1-9), trained to do pastoral work (Lk. 9:10-27), and barraged them about his teachings (Lk. 9:51-62). He even revealed to them his imminent death (Lk. 9: 43-50). In short, the disciples were trained by Jesus about salvation made manifest through signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to the Father’s will (Heb. 2:2-4). With this training, it can be presumed that the apostles must have established trust and confidence in Jesus. They would not have chosen to follow him unless they already have faith in Jesus.

When the apostles demanded to increase their faith, they actually realized how difficult it is to follow Jesus because as he said in the preceding verses, “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves” (Lk. 17:1-3). This warning would refer to the many temptations that the apostles would be facing as they follow Jesus. Temptations are inevitable as these would take in varied forms. They are considered as stumbling blocks to the apostles’ faith in him. Another demand which is so difficult to accomplish is the way the apostles should deal with people who hurt them. Jesus told them: “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them” (Lk. 17:4). The message is clear: the apostles are required to forgive which is absolute, even at some points their offender repeats the offense over and over again. The act of forgiving endlessly is very challenging and the apostles recognized that there is a need to increase their faith.

The gospel of Luke mentions the term “faith” twelve times  (5:20; 7:9, 50; 8:25, 48; 12:28; 17:5, 6, 19, 18:8, 42; 22:32) and mostly, it refers to the persons’ faith as they were healed by Jesus.  When they are asking Jesus to increase their faith, they are aware that it is only faith that would help them surmount various temptations; it is only faith that would give them the grace to forgive seventy-times seven times. In this regard, faith is understood as a gift so that, as what Jesus told them, even if it is small like a grain of mustard seed (v. 6), it still possesses a great power to move them, empower them to resist temptation and forgive infinitely. While they receive faith as a gift, Jesus would like to make it clear with them that faith is also a duty. He articulates this by presenting a parable of an unworthy servant (vv. 7-10).

Just as servants are expected to serve their master, the disciples have to remain faithful in Jesus for their faith to grow. Nonetheless, their relationship with Jesus should be anchored on faith in him and in response to it, they should remain faithful until the end. This call to remain faithful to him is a thing which Paul handed on to Timothy. He told him “to fan into flame the gift of God . . .  do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord . . .  with faith and love in Christ Jesus” (2 Tm.1:6-8). Christians nowadays are still being admonished to grow in faith and to exercise their duty to be faithful to the Lord. As Pope Francis beautifully puts it: “Faith . . . enables us to respect nature all the more, and to discern in it a grammar written by the hand of God and a dwelling place entrusted to our protection and care. Faith also helps us to devise models of development which are based not simply on utility and profit, but consider creation as a gift for which we are all indebted; it teaches us to create just forms of government, in the realization that authority comes from God and is meant for the service of the common good. Faith likewise offers the possibility of forgiveness, which so often demands time and effort, patience and commitment” (LF 55). (by Fr. Rodel D. Magin, OSA) /Vulnerasti, 2022