27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Maude was a devout Catholic woman in her sixties. For most of her life, she desired to go and visit the holy places in Rome. But Maude was terrified of flying. She realized that she was not getting any younger, and, if she was ever going to make it to Rome, she would have to do it soon. So she summoned her courage and bought a ticket. When she walked onto the plane, she was wearing her largest cross as prevention against any disaster. As she took her seat, she noticed that a few rows back there were four bishops on the plane, obviously going to some meeting at the Vatican.

This made Maude feel better. The flight started uneventfully. But after dinner there was a jolt, and Maude looked out the window to see that one of the four engines had detached from the plane and was disappearing into the clouds. She sounded the alarm: “We’re going to die!” she screamed. The captain came over the PA system and assured every one, that yes, they had lost an engine, but he was confident that they could complete the fight and safely land on three engines. This did not comfort Maude. She continued to yell out: “We’re going to die!” The stewardess came over to calm her. Noticing her cross, she took a religious approach. “Madame,” she said, “Please relax. God is with us. We do not need to fear. Besides we still have three engines and look, we have four bishops on the plane.” Maude responded, “I’d rather have four engines and three bishops.”

As human beings we always prefer certainty to having to take the risk of faith. In our gospel today, the disciples come to Jesus and ask him to increase their faith. Jesus responds by saying if their faith were just the size of a mustard seed, they could command a mulberry tree to be uprooted and be planted in the sea, and it would obey them. What Jesus is describing here sounds something like magic. What Jesus is describing here sounds like the wish of the woman to change a bishop into an engine. There is an important distinction to be made between faith and magic. Magic is accessing supernatural power in order to do our will. Faith is about accessing supernatural power in order to do the will of the supernatural. In this regard, Jesus never engages in magic, for his whole life and mission are centred around doing the will of his Father in heaven. Too often though, we use our faith in a manner that is more akin to magic. Our lives of faith are oriented around getting access to God’s power in order to accomplish our own agenda.

In some ways, we have quite a skewed idea of faith if we make it all about our own agenda. The Scriptures demonstrate to us that what faith is really all about is about trusting the promises that God makes to us. One such example of faith in the Hebrew Bible is Abraham. God asked him to leave his country and all that he knew in order to journey to an unknown land that God would show him. Having faith in God meant taking a real risk. He would have to leave all that was familiar to him, abandon all his support structures and venture out into the unknown, trusting that God would have his back and that this all wasn’t simply a crazy idea that he had dreamed up in his own head. Sometimes people acting on faith can seem like they have lost their minds. Many of the saints were branded as crack-pots by the rest of society around him. This was certainly the case with St. Ignatius, who was regarded as crazy by the rest of his family when he decided to devote his life to the service of God.

Faith is therefore the spiritual attitude that leads us to take a gamble on doing life God’s way. When we decide to do life God’s way, we are risking our happiness, our sanity, our peace on something intangible, on something that we cannot prove. The woman flying in the plane would have much preferred to have four engines, rather than three. The pilot assured her that they would be able to make it home with three engines, but evidently she did not have the faith necessary to calm down and trust that the pilot knew what he was doing and would guide them home.

Too often in our own lives, we are like this woman, unwilling to trust that God is able to steer us safely home amidst the crises that we face. The good news is that Jesus is telling us that just a little faith is needed, not mountains of faith, indeed, faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain. We just need to take that first small step towards trust in God, and God will do the rest. It is the human thing to do to seek the fastest route out of our problem and back to safety. For this woman in the plane, the fastest route was to change a bishop into an engine. The fastest route out of our problem and back to safety often looks like magic. But the truth of our lives is that more often than not, we are called upon to trust that God will get us home with three engines. We are called on to be able to get by with the little that we have.

Our lives often look like the situation that is described by the prophet Habbakuk in our first reading. Habbakuk lived during the reign of King Jehoiakim, who did nothing to protect the weak and the poor and allowed them to be oppressed. The people went to Habbakuk and asked him to consult the Lord. He therefore addresses the plea of the people to the Lord “How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen. I cry to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin, why must I look at misery.” (1: 2-3). This is surely the cry of many faithful who are going through a time of trial or suffering. The reply of the Lord comes to Habbakuk in these words “For the vision still has it’s time, presses on towards it fulfillment and will not disappoint, if it comes slowly, wait, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash one has no integrity, but the just one, because of his faith shall live.” This answer speaks to the faithfulness of God to God’s promises. God assures the prophet that salvation is on it’s way, even if it appears to be coming slowly, we will not be disappointed. We do not hope in vain. In the mean time we are to be patient and not lose our integrity. The “rash one,” the person without faith, will go and consult a witchdoctor, because of their impatience, the “rash one” will engage in bribery and corruption in order to get out of trouble and achieve their agenda, but in the process they will lose their integrity.

A mulberry tree uprooting itself and being planted in the sea is indeed extraordinary. But so is someone who responds to a cancer diagnosis without bitterness, fear or cynicism and instead trusts that God is going to steer them to their destination. It is also extraordinary to see someone go through financial or legal difficulties, who resists the temptation to resort to bribery or corruption to solve their problems, but instead trusts that God will make a way where there seems to be no way. It is extraordinary to see a mother accompany her son through his addiction without taking the shortcut of simply cutting them out of their lives in order to get away from the pain of watching a loved one suffer. These are the responses that are enabled by faith the size of a mustard seed. They are perhaps even more extraordinary than a mulberry tree uprooting itself and being planted in the sea, because these situations each require us to stay in a liminal space of uncertainty about what the future contains. Remaining in this liminal space and trusting that God has our backs is what true faith is all about.

Questions for reflection

1. In what ways might my practice of the faith be more akin to magic?
2. How is God calling me to increase my faith by remaining in the liminal space of uncertainty and becoming more trusting?
3. What is my general reaction to crises and alarming news? Do I quickly lose my peace and calm and freak out? What could be behind such a reaction?