The Gospel today is a continuation of last week.
“Lord, increase our faith” is a genuine response of the Apostles. The Lord had
told them to forgive unconditionally. And they were probably grappling with how
to do it. Ordinarily, people are forgiving but to forgive unconditionally, like
7 X 77 times, it can take a toll on a person’s “stock” of forgiveness.
Therefore, to do what the Lord expects of us, we need
the increase of faith the Apostles were asking for. What do we understand faith
to be?
By way of catechesis, faith is both a gift and a
response. It is a response that man makes to God who reveals and gives Himself
to man. In that way, man submits both his intellect and will to God. In other
words, it is trusting God who has revealed Himself in Sacred Scriptures through
the Church. It is not enough to know God because the devils also know him. What
they do not have is faith in God for that would be an act of the will. Faith in
God requires that we choose Him and not just know about Him. In the end, we
will be judge not by our knowledge of God but rather by our choice of Him.
It is easy to choose God when things are going well
for us. When everything seems to be running smoothly, we may think that we have
faith. But what happens when our faith is sorely tested. The first reading says
that much. Habakkuk laments the silence of God. He cries to God who apparently
does not intervene. Instead, God asks him to trust and to have faith. According
to God, the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
Hence, the Apostles’ request that Jesus increase their
faith makes a lot of sense. Why? For us, our faith largely has been tied to
material well-being. Many examples. Some pray to God for success in business
venture. Others are praying for a suitable job and hoping to get it. Parents or
children pray for their loved one to be healed of a debilitating disease.
Others are longing for the return of their lost one, like those who are still
waiting for MH370 to be found.
Do not get this wrong. Asking from God is perfectly
legitimate because He is Providence. But sadly, the notion that God is personal
and caring has been defined narrowly by how far and how much He accedes to our
requests. I am sure you may know of someone who has stayed away from Church
because God did not answer his or her prayers. A simple explanation for this departure
is that faith is not really an assent of the will to God but rather “faith”, as
we understand it, has come to denote how much God is willing to assent to our requests.
This makes the latter part of the Gospel a huge
challenge. Luke tells us that we must wait on God. Using the image of a Master
and servant, no one should expect that being a servant is anymore than that.
The servant does what he is paid to do, no matter how tired he or she is. This
sounds rather harsh but the point is, just like the servant who has served, our
response to God is to the trust without expecting any recompense. That is
difficult since we are easily aggrieved or hurt. We have become hyper-sensitive
and our feelings are easily wounded. More than that, we feel entitled which
makes the Gospel sound rather offensive.
Faith in God will stretch all our resources. In case
you have not noticed, it appears that those who trust God more are the ones who
suffer most. This rubs against the grain of our materialist logic. There is a
saying, “Friends with benefits”. Of course, it means something else if you
Google-check the phrase. The point is that when we are friends, there has to be
some benefits like expecting our friends not to stab us in the back. As the
saying goes, “With friends like you, who needs enemies?”. Logic dictates that
if we were God’s friends, surely, there must be benefits.
But, saint after saint disabuses this logic. It does
not follow that faith will shield us from troubles. St Teresa of Avila was on a
mission somewhere near Burgos and there was a river they had to cross. She
assured her companions that since they were engaged in God’s work, what better
cause than to die in the Lord’s service. She bravely led the way across the
river but the current was so strong that she lost her footing and was on the
point of being carried away when the Lord sustained her. “Oh my Lord,” she
exclaimed in her familiarity with God, “when will You cease from scattering
obstacles in our paths”? “Do not complain, daughter”, Jesus answered, “for that
is how I treat My friends”. Her reply? “No wonder Lord, you have so few friends!”.
Precisely, people are afraid to become friends of God
for fear that God will send obstacles to test them. It is as if it does not pay
to be His friend. The thing is this: God may have few friends but that is not
because He treats them badly. It is more likely that when we become His friends,
the devil will attempt to disrupt the friendship and make us lose faith in God.
And furthermore, when things are going well for us, it does not always mean
that God is blessing us. Look at how evil men flourish. Especially those who
have sold their souls to the devil. Have noticed the key players in the
previous administration and how they were rich beyond all expectations. I am
quite certain that their riches were not divine in origin. What we may surmise
is when evil men flourish, they fall within the category of God’s permissive
will. We do not know why He allows it but trust that God knows what He is
doing.[1]
Alternatively, when things are not going well, it does not mean that God is
cursing us. Like Job where God’s permissive will allowed the Devil to test him,
so in our case, God allows our testing so that our friendship with Him can be
purified.
As the Apostles found out, that life is tough, we
should ask God for faith and like a plant we should nourish this faith. Praying
and not giving up on prayer even if everything seems hopeless is one way of
keeping our faith alive. It follows that adhering to one’s devotional practices
is also a good thing to do. In other words, do not stop, even if you feel that
what you have been doing is useless for that is truly an act of placing one’s
trust in God.
The entitled victim in us, perhaps needs a kick in the
rear to wake up our faith. For like Habakkuk, we are accustomed to complaining.
We are pampered and like “Snowflakes”, generally melt under pressure to the point
that we people disagree with us, we feel done to. The politics today is a
politics of “hurt” and “taking offence”. Everyday, we read this race or that
religion is offended. I have read somewhere that hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard
times. It is a vicious cycle and you can guess which stage we are right now.
In summary, faith in God is resilience in a time of
darkness and difficulties. Our Lady at the Annunciation has taught us this
beautiful lesson when she said yes to God. She teaches us that faith does not
make things easy. Faith only makes them possible. Trust in the Lord, in good
times and in bad. And until the Lord opens the next door for you, as you wait, praise
Him in the doorway.
[1] There seems to be a decoupling between
wealth and blessing. As Matt 5:45 reminds us that “God causes His sun to rise
upon the good and the bad, and He cause it to rain upon the just and the
unjust”. If wealth is not a blessing, then, what is it? The key is found in Lk
12:48 “So then, of all to whom much has been given, much will be required. And
of those to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be asked”. In the new
covenant, wealth is more a responsibility than it is a blessing. If the
Communion of Saints is to mean something, then the one “blessed” with more is
to be responsible for more. Blessing is never for one’s own benefit but for the
good of the communion.
