Lord, Increase Our Faith"

Today's Mass Readings

The theme of today’s readings is faith. The first reading from the book of Habakkuk says, “The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live” (Hab 2:4), and in the gospel reading, to the disciples’ request, “Lord, Increase our faith,” (Lk 17: 5), Jesus responded, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Lk 17:6).

So what is faith? The best way to define faith is to substitute it with another word. The word I use is ‘abandonment.’ And I choose this word because I see this in the life of Jesus. At the end of his ministry, Jesus finds himself in the garden of Gethsemane praying, “Father take this cup away from me.” There is silence. He sweats blood as he prays. Yet there was no sign of his Father intervening. Did Jesus make this prayer because at that moment Jesus could not even muster enough faith? The next day, Jesus finds himself on the cross. I wonder, if, as he hung there, he doubted if he did everything right. All his preaching, all his healings, all the good things he did; what good did it all achieve? To make it worse, at that moment even God seemed to hide his presence from him. In that feeling of abandonment, he cries out to his Father, “My God, My God why have you abandoned me?” And there is silence yet again. Is Jesus’ prayer heard? Did the Father respond? Could Jesus not muster faith even the size of a mustard seed?

Jesus did not consider faith to be a means for his prayers to be answered. We see his faith on the cross when in the midst of excruciating pain, in the midst of the ridicule and humiliation, in the midst of anxiety for his mother, in the midst of seeing all his ministry fail, in the midst being abandoned by all his friends, he says, “Father into your hands I abandon my spirit.” Jesus believed that the Father will bring about the ultimate good – the resurrection. That is faith – abandonment,

Faith is the assurance that my entire life is in the hands of God – no matter what. Faith is abandoning all of our lives into the hands of God. Faith means to love unconditionally, even if someone taking advantage of us, and believe that there will be a resurrection. Faith means forgiving someone seventy times seven, even if it is humiliating and believe in the ultimate good. Faith means to give till it hurts and believing God can and will provide for our needs. Faith means to be just and believe that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Faith is believing that even though things are not going right for me, God is still active in my life and will bring some good out of it. Faith is not to be afraid of death because we know that even in death we are in the hands of God. Faith is to live by the gospel values, even if it is the most difficult thing to do and believe that God will rescue us. Faith is to be like Jesus on the cross, abandoning our lives into the hands of God.