27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October is the month when we pray for the missionary efforts of the Church and the missionary men and women who bring the gospel message to those in other countries so that the people there will have faith in Jesus and what he teaches. Also during the month of October we are encouraged to pray the Rosary with the feast of our Lady of the Rosary on the 7th October. The readings for this Sunday reminds us to trust God, even when life feels unfair or unclear. The readings speak of faith that waits with hope and service that does what is needed. Each passage points to a life that relies on God, not on our own strength. In the First Reading from the prophet Habakkuk we are told that despite witnessing violence and injustice, the plea for divine intervention is met with God’s instruction to record a future vision that promises fulfilment and vindicates the just who live by faith. In the Second Reading from St Pauls second letter to Timothy we are called to Reignite the divine gift within us, embracing God’s spirit of power, love, and discipline, and steadfastly proclaim your faith, guided and protected by the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel for this Sunday is made up of two apparently unrelated sayings of Jesus, one dealing with the gift of faith and the other a very stark and challenging reminder to the apostles of the call to service they have received as people sent by God to share in Jesus’ mission of proclaiming the Good News. We might be tempted to skip over such ‘hard sayings’ but we are asked to listen to them because the Gospel always liberates us from false ideas about ourselves and. Perhaps we think that having faith means believing certain things. Thinking our faith is small can keep us from doing so many things that we are called to do by our faith in Jesus the Son of God. The disciples must have thought their faith was so small they couldn’t act on it. But Jesus wants his disciples and by association ourselves to trust and act on our god given faith. The alternative to acting out of faith would be saying things like: I can’t take on that responsibility, I don’t have enough faith. The disciples may have felt similar inhibitions after hearing what Jesus just taught about not leading others into sin. But Jesus teaches, “Act on the little faith you have. You’ll be surprised what you can do.” His example of the deep-rooted mulberry tree underlines his lesson to us about the power of the smallest seed of faith to work marvels. We may find ourselves doing something that surprises us and those who know us. But despite the remarkable things we might do, we must acknowledge the source of all our good deeds the faith planted in us by God. Realizing this we can say with those servants in the parable: “We are unprofitable servants, we have done what we were obliged to do.” We could also add: “We have only done what our faith has enabled us to do.
“God gives us the grace to do great things in his name as Mary puts it in the Magnificat the Lord has done great things for me and holy is his name. As we pray for our faith to be strengthened we thank god for all those people who helped us to have faith in the first place, our parents, families, teachers, friends and our clergy throughout our lives all of them played their part in giving us the faith. Although Christ was speaking to the Apostles, His words apply to all of us, in our own lives here and now. Following the example of the Apostles, we must all pray for greater trust and faith in God and his love for all of us especially in our time with all the turmoil that is in the world. This Sunday we are called to keep our faith alive and active. We are reminded that faith grows when we trust God living each day in hope, love, and quiet faithfulness. . As we journey through October, may our prayers, and our trust in God continue to bear fruit in our lives and the and the lives of the people in world around us.
Fullerton T 