07/10/2007 - 27th Sunday in O. T. - Year C
First Reading: Hab 1,2-3; 2,2-4 Psalm: 95
Second Reading: 2Timothy 1,6-8,13-14 Gospel: Luke 17, 5-10
My prayers may be pleasing to God when he sees that I accept his wishes. Hence
my petition "thy kingdom come" and "thy will be done". For
the world to become God's kingdom, he sent Jesus and to fulfil the fullness
of his love he allowed Jesus to be crucified. Jesus gives us the opportunity
of participating in his mission and so teaches us to pray for God's kingdom
where the Father can bring about peace and order amongst people according to
his wisdom, an order that comes from love and leads to love! Jesus wishes us
to do the Father's will which will save us and the world. The Father's will
is wiser and more far-seeing than ours which is moved by egoism and the desire
to satisfy immediate needs. Jesus' most important prayer is that of the garden
of Gethsemane; "Father thy will, not my will be done"! This was the
prayer with which he prepared himself for the cross. The cross was first of
all, suffering and death, but then came his glory and salvation for the world.
We wish to do the Father's will even when this will bring us to die to ourselves;
we know that in the end the Father will lead us to joy and glory. The lives
of the saints that the Church proposes as examples of life often illustrate
the events that lead from the cross to joy and glory. In teaching us to pray
Jesus teaches us to desire God's will above all else, and to change our modes
of being and thinking and to reach out to the Father with all our strength and
to undergo an authentic, profound conversion!
Jesus has just encouraged the disciples to forgive a brother whenever he asks
for it. They realize that to be able to do this it is necessary for them to
have a much greater and deeper faith than they actually have, They ask Jesus
to "increase our faith"! To forgive someone who sins again and again
it is truly necessary to have faith; if you let yourself be led by God you will
be able to forgive because you will not see the sinner, but rather God's compassion
above all for you and then for the others. It may seem strange, but Jesus does
not promise to increase the disciples faith, he says that they have more than
enough already! Faith the size of a mustard seed is sufficient and that is the
smallest seed there is. Everyone can have that amount of faith. Faith to accept
Jesus is complete in itself.
But we must keep pride at bay otherwise our faith will be spoilt and our relationships
with God and with others will be destroyed. Jesus wants to help his disciples
to cultivate a sincere, calm humility, so he tells the parable with the famous
ending which might at first seem unacceptable: "When you have done all
you have been commanded to do, say: we are useless servants, we have done no
more than our duty". Our obedience leaves no room for pride in having obeyed,
only humility which is ready to serve once again. Our greatest reason to boast
is that we are servants. Whoever serves with love is living the life of God's
son who came to serve the Father and in serving the Father's love he served
humanity. Didn't he say: "The Son of man came to serve not to be served"?
In serving other I will unite with Jesus and will become similar to him! When
I have finished one task there will be another for I cannot live without being
intimately united with the Son of God, with Jesus. And so our faith becomes
our life just as Habakkuk wrote (1st Reading): "The just man, because of
his faith, shall live". Faith lets us forgive and ask for forgiveness and
this is the beginning of a life pleasing to the Father, of a life of the son
who serves so as to develop and mature his own love. It is the testimony we
can give our Lord Jesus Christ. He well deserves that we put his presence and
the wealth of his love in the light. We can do it by our joyful, free and gratuitous
service. St Paul helps us when (2nd Reading) he writes to Timothy: "God
did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of strength and love and
wisdom. Therefore, never be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord". It is nice
to know that we may be witnesses for Christ, to be able, by our loving service,
to make Him know as the Saviour who came for everybody; often I have been strengthened
and sustained by the certainty that, even if nobody sees me, my humble and unknown
service may help to glorify Jesus, help to maintain the presence of the Holy
Spirit alive and operative. And also the fact of being attentive to glorify
Jesus helps us to see what we should do or have to do in the most various situations
of our daily life.