Lectio
Divina:*
Meditatio:
“we have done only what we ought to have done” (Luke 17:10)
Faith is a form of trust. Not any type of trust.
Faith is a lingering hope when all seems hopeless.
Faith is a stubborn conviction when the evidence seems
thin.
Faith is received more than it is given.
Faith is lived more than it is scripted.
Faith is grace – amazing grace – when we feel utterly lost.
Faith is the bar on which we manage to hang on.
Faith is more about a living and loving relationship of trust than intellectual assent to some doctrines (important as these may sometimes be).
And even if we should lose all faith for a while we find
ourselves strangely enveloped in a kind and loving trust. Life has many twists
and turns. It can happen that those things we never wanted, or expected or
planned arrive and turn our little worlds upside down. One day we are healthy,
full of life and dreaming dreams for the future. The next day a few of us meet
an accident that leaves us with a disability for life. Disability, sickness,
death is always for others – so we think. It would never happen to me. But,
everyday billions of people face a new day not knowing what lies ahead. Whether
it is health or sickness, trouble or joy, sadness or liberation we live by
faith. Those of us who have found peace in the faith of Jesus Christ can only
boast of one thing, viz, faith met us in our darkest hour when no light seemed
possible or visible. (It is no accident that the gospels are full of images of
darkness and light). In 2
Timothy 1:12 St Paul writes:
and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him
Faith is a choice and never a compulsion or imposition. At
some point we are open to faith in that quiet spot somewhere beyond the horizon
of our imaginings and not infrequently in a time of darkness. Many are those
who receive faith and stay with it throughout their lives in simplicity of
heart. They are blessed. Still others meet faith after many years of bitterness
and struggle at a time and place least expected.
Faith is not something static or fixed. The mere fact
that the friends of Jesus asked him: ‘increase our faith’ (v. 5) shows that
faith is something living, growing and changing. Compared to a tiny mustard
seed (v.6) we picture an image of growth from something tiny, fragile,
precarious to something large, solid and welcoming. To look for an increase in
something means that what is there now is less than complete or satisfactory.
We, too, can and should ask in simplicity of heart ‘increase our faith’. Not,
in the first place, by means of vast reading and intellectual discourse. The
intellect has its place and we are urged to love God with ‘all our mind’.
However, the ‘heart’ is where faith is born and nurtured. It can also be a
place where it may be lost for a while through care, worry, pain or the result
of abuse.
Opening the doors of trust
In our 21st century ‘first world’ millions
seek peace, meaning, belonging. There is a thirst and a void. And many seek
peace outside the traditional places of worship or ritual. They turn to the
East. Or, they turn to the depths of their own hearts where peace can be
experienced in the gentle streams …. Today, empty churches and ageing or dying
congregations need to open their doors – literally – to allow others to come
in, stay awhile and speak while some of us exercise a ministry of deep
listening without questioning, without judging and without presuming to know
what is best. We are merely caretakers of trust springing up in surprising
places. We have merely ‘done only what we ought to have done!’ (v. 10).
And amazing things can happen when people are given space to
listen. Trust is established not on our terms but on God’s terms in ways we
never imagined. With trust the size of a mustard seed (or a micro-chip, to use
a 21st image) we can say see miracles around us – lives saved,
misery transformed and people empowered to live in a new way never imagined
possible. It all starts at the darkest hour just before the dawn. At such a
time a spontaneous prayer springs up inspired by the petition for our ‘daily
bread’ in the prayer of Our Father:
Give us the strength to live our daily calling; to face darkness, uncertainty and pain with courage and love.
Oratio
(Collect of the Word for this Sunday - Church
of Ireland)
Faithful God, have mercy on us your unworthy servants, and
increase our faith,
that, trusting in your Spirit’s power to work in us and through us, we may
never be ashamed to witness to our Lord but may obediently serve him all our
days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity
of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
These readings are taken from the Sunday lectionary used in most Catholic churches. The source is BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages (using the New Revised Standard Version - anglicised catholic edition). Psalms in this Blog are numbered according to the Hebrew (Masoretic) text with the Greek Septuagint/Vulgate numbering in parenthesis where applicable.
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