18th Week OT (S)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA
How
embarrassing for the disciples! Imagine their chagrin. Despite their
time with Jesus and their love for him, they can't manage a simple
exorcism. While they blush and shuffle their feet, our Lord, sounding
disappointed and out-of-sorts, rails at them, “O faithless and
perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I
endure you?” Faithless and perverse?! Well, that's hardly pastoral.
Not very shepherd-like, is it? And then we have that sarcastic
rhetorical question: how long will he
endure us?
Seriously, who's “enduring” whom here? We're trying to learn, so
we ask, “Why couldn't we exorcise this guy?” After yelling at us
for the ineffectiveness of our “little faith,” he tells us that
all it takes to move mountains is to “have faith the size of a
mustard seed.” Those things are tiny! Again, seriously, who's
enduring whom? Cryptic parables, weird prophecies, inconsistent
proverbs, novel prayers. And he expects us to get all this – snap!
– like that. Tell us, Lord, what's the difference btw “having
little faith” and “having faith the size of a mustard seed”?
The problem isn't the size of our faith. The problem is that we don't
know what faith is.
Consider
the mustard seed. About 2mm in diameter. Barely larger than a single
grain of sand. Less than half of cup of these seeds contains 25g of
protein. That's more protein than we find in a 3oz steak. That same
half cup contains almost 20g of monounsaturated fat – the good fat
that reduces bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol. Rich in
B vitamins and trace metals like iron, calcium, and zinc, that half
cup provides nearly 15g of dietary fiber. The mustard seed is a
powerhouse of excellent nutrition! So, what do these fascinating
nutritional facts have to do with our faith? The size of our faith –
big, small, long, or short – has nothing to do with the power of
our faith, the ability of our faith to accomplish great things. Faith
is not measurable in ounces, feet, pounds, or grams. “More faith”
does not mean “better faith.” When Jesus tells us that “faith
the size of a mustard seed” can move mountains, he's not measuring
the diameter of faith and telling us to collect more seeds. A gallon
jug of mustard seeds sitting idly in a pantry can do nothing for high
cholesterol, or protein deficiency, or constipation. For those seeds
to unleash their full nutritional potential, they must be consumed
and allowed to do their natural best. And so it is with faith.
The
supernatural gift of trusting in God is not a thing to be possessed.
Like a watch or a pair of shoes. Faith* is a disposition, a
temperament; it's a good habit, an instilled inclination to turn
ourselves toward God and rely on His love for us to do the work He's
given us to do. Our tendency to think of faith in terms of measurable
amounts is understandable. We say things like “my faith isn't
strong enough,” or “I need a larger faith.” But this way of
speaking about faith pushes us into the same problem the disciples
encounter this morning. If we rely on the size or weight of our faith
to accomplish great things, then we will end in failure every time.
If, however, we rely solely on the love of the Father to provide and
care for us; if we surrender entirely to His will; if we receive the
gift of trusting in Him and exercise this gift like a triathlete at
an Olympic gym, mountains will be the smallest things we can move. We
can be moved from our fallen human nature, from our inclinations
towards disobedience and death and onto our graced end – eternal
life. Exercise faith like a vital muscle. Tend it like a
prize-winning orchid. And refuse to measure it by the ounces and
inches of this world.
* For those with a more analytical mind, here's a definition of faith from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909. "The foregoing analyses will enable us to define an act of Divine supernatural faith as "the act of the intellect assenting to a Divine truth owing to the movement of the will, which is itself moved by the grace of God" (St. Thomas, II-II, Q. iv, a. 2). And just as the light of faith is a gift supernaturally bestowed upon the understanding, so also this Divine grace moving the will is, as its name implies, an equally supernatural and an absolutely gratuitous gift. Neither gift is due to previous study neither of them can be acquired by human efforts, but "Ask and ye shall receive."
* For those with a more analytical mind, here's a definition of faith from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909. "The foregoing analyses will enable us to define an act of Divine supernatural faith as "the act of the intellect assenting to a Divine truth owing to the movement of the will, which is itself moved by the grace of God" (St. Thomas, II-II, Q. iv, a. 2). And just as the light of faith is a gift supernaturally bestowed upon the understanding, so also this Divine grace moving the will is, as its name implies, an equally supernatural and an absolutely gratuitous gift. Neither gift is due to previous study neither of them can be acquired by human efforts, but "Ask and ye shall receive."
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