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Blog: October 2, 2022

Fr. Jeff and others share reflections on the Sunday readings.

October 2, 2022

“If I just had more faith….” I think most of us have struggled with that at some points in our lives. If I just had more faith, I wouldn’t have so many questions or doubts. If I just had more faith, God would answer my prayers. If I just had more faith, he wouldn’t have died; she would have recovered. If I just had more faith, I would be more involved in the church. If I just had more faith, I would be a better person, a better parent, a better spouse. If I just had more faith, I would know what to do, I would handle things better. If I just had more faith, life would be different. It is the approach the disciples have taken in the Gospel. “Increase our faith,” they ask Jesus. Jesus has just warned them not to become stumbling blocks to others and enjoined them to forgive as often as an offender repents even if it is seven times in one day. That will be difficult. It will be a challenge to live that way. “Increase our faith,” is their response. It seems like a reasonable request.


Jesus is very clear that faithfulness is not about size or quantity. “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed,” he says, “you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” We cannot have more or less faith. Because faith is a verb not a noun. Faith is engagement, orientation, direction. Faith is something we do, not something we have. Faith is not about how much or how strongly we believe Jesus’s words or actions. Faith will not change the circumstances of our lives. Instead, it changes us. Living in faith does not protect us from the pain and difficulties of life, it does not undo the past, and it will not guarantee a particular future. Rather, faith is the means by which we face and deal with the circumstances of life – the difficulties and losses, the joys and successes, the opportunities and possibilities.

In the Bible, faith is most often used to describe a disposition, not a possession. Abraham is told to walk “faithfully before the Lord,” the spies tell Rahab that they will deal with her “kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.” When the friends of the paralytic man lower him through the roof so they could get him to Jesus, Luke says, “When the Lord saw their faith…” Biblically, faith describes a relationship of trust and love. The apostles' demand for more faith is not a bad request but it is wrong. They think they need something extra, they need to do something more, they need great faith. Nevertheless, they don’t need great faith, they need faith in a great God. They need to understand that faith allows God to work in a person’s life in ways that defy ordinary human experience. This saying is not about performing extraordinary miracles, but that with even the smallest of faith, God can help them to live by his teachings on discipleship.


Faith is not lived out in the abstract. It is practiced day after day in ordinary circumstances. When we feel the pain of the world and respond with compassion by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, speaking for justice; when we experience the brokenness of a relationship and offer forgiveness and mercy; when we see the oppressed and offer our presence and prayers – in all those we have lived, seen, and acted by faith. Then there are days when we feel powerless, lost, and do not know the way forward, by faith we sit in silence and wait. We believe that God is always with us even though sometimes or many times we may not recognize his presence. We may ask God for many things and many requests but He does not say a word. What do we do when we cry out to God and there is no answer, or at least we cannot hear it? Why is God silent at times? Indeed, the silence of God is one of the difficult tests of faith. He might test us to teach us the importance of silence, the importance of waiting on Him. Waiting is a fundamental of firm faith. While we are waiting, we should be praising, we should be working, we should be praying, we should be worshiping and we should be confessing the word of God. This ensures that we are standing sure.