LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH.

XXVII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4; Lk 17:5-10

Faith is a precious gift

As the Year of Faith comes to a close, we realise more and more how small and weak is our faith. We need to grow in faith, by totally surrendering ourselves to God and allowing him to be in control of our lives, aware that only in him we can find ourselves. We need to grow in understanding, illumined by the Spirit that reveals to us the secrets of God. And we need to grow in commitment, moulding our lives according to the pattern of Jesus Christ. All this cannot be done by our own effort; only the grace of God can enable us to reach the measure of Christ. That's why we need to pray like the Apostles: Lord, increase our faith (Lk 17:5).

Faith is first of all a gift from God. In his message for the Mission Sunday, Pope Francis wrote: "Faith is God’s precious gift, which opens our mind to know and love him." Being a gift, we need to ask for it.

Learning with the Apostles

Reading the Gospels, we must remember that they are at once proclamation of the Good News of God's salvific love and catechesis to the community of believers, teaching the attitudes needed in a worthy disciple of Jesus Christ. We must learn with the Apostles, presenting like them this request to the Lord: Increase our faith.

In moments of suffering

Faith can be put to the test time and time again, specially in moments of suffering. And we may question ourselves and we question God specially, like the prophet Habakkuk: 

"How long, O Lord, am I to cry for help

while you will not listen;

to cry ‘Oppression!’ in your ear

and you will not save?

Why do you set injustice before me,

why do you look on where there is tyranny?" (Hab 1:2-3). 

The answer given to the prophet may seem enigmatic: "the righteous live by their faith" (Hab 2:4), but it expresses the attitude of the believer who maintains his attachment to God, even in moments of darkness and pain; and God who is the God of light will soothe the pain and transform it into joy and bring in the light that scatters the darkness in our hearts.

We are just servants

Many times we think that God has a duty to reward us and to grant us all our desires. In this Sunday's gospel, Jesus reminds us that we are servants, and as servants we are supposed to do our duty, never thinking that we did something extraordinary. Instead, we must convince ourselves that "we have done only what we ought to have done" (Lk 17:10).

God will give us much more than what we claim as a reward, but only if we receive it as the precious gift of his love, to which we have no claim.