Scripture:
Deuteronomy 6:4-13
Matthew 17:14-20
Reflection:
A Little Faith is Like a Mustard Seed
In this section of the gospel, Jesus journeys to Jerusalem, teaching those closest to him, his disciples. A father has enough faith in Jesus and his disciples to approach them and ask for healing. The disciples were unable to do this healing. Why? “Because of your little faith,” Jesus answers.
The father, who slides off into the background, has faith, but our story is not about him. We focus on the disciples. Jesus tells them that they have little faith, yet even faith as tiny as the mustard seed can do what seems impossible. We might want Jesus to explain faith more. Could it be that our little faith needs to be joined to the power of Jesus, and that will make a difference? Like a parable, we look closer and ponder….in this case, the little faith of the disciples doesn’t do anything. What is missing?
In our Sunday readings, we are following the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus also is teaching as he journeys to Jerusalem. Jesus has taught recently that we must ask, seek, and knock; we must persevere in our prayer. While we may not seem to receive what we ask in prayer, for instance, world peace or healing, our perseverance may be at work, making us persons of peace or growing in us healing, compassionate hearts. In the void of a prayer offered where we find ourselves like the man in the gospel repeating our prayer, “Lord, have pity”….Luke says that here the Holy Spirit, God’s greatest gift to us, will be with us.
May we cling to our faith. We can become angry with God, put distance between ourselves and God, because our knocking and asking go unanswered. Does it? Like the little child whose small hand (why am I thinking of sweaty and dirty?) grasps a tiny, precious treasure, we reverence that. So, our little faith. God certainly reverences that.
Today is the feast of St. Benedicta of the Cross, born Edith Stein. A daughter in a loving Jewish family, her journey of life would lead her to faith in Jesus, and her becoming a Carmelite religious. How contrary is the way things can happen in life – Edith chooses to follow Christ. She, who was one of the Chosen People of Israel, makes herself one with Christians, and Christians who put her to death because she was a Jew. It makes no sense. The American author Flannery O’Connor, whose characters are often people of faith who knock at the door only to have the door fall off its hinges on top of them, says, “[some] think faith a big electric blanket when of course it is the Cross”.
Edith’s final book, being written when she was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to execution in Auschwitz, is entitled, “The Science of the Cross”. Her hand grasped her faith; she was a star of David shining so brightly in the darkness. She saw the Cross being laid upon her Jewish people and was willing to carry it, if God would show her how.
Let us cling to our ‘little faith’, a big mystery, a heavy cross. As the disciples accompany Jesus on his journey, Jesus accompanies us on ours. He is the Way, who enlightens and give us life.
Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.