Twenty-seventy Sunday in Ordinary Time - Power Source_100619

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Power Source”

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Imagine we could harness the power Jesus associates with faith. If a tiny amount of faith could transform the physical environment, and one could move mountains, there would be no limit to the good that people with just a bit of faith could accomplish.  So why do we have so many conditions that cause us hardship, sorrow, regret and grief?  Is Jesus somehow chiding His disciples for lacking faith? 

The sudden urge the Apostles had for more faith is revealing. Was it because they are finally beginning to realize they needed to step up their game in order to follow Jesus; or they needed more faith themselves just to grasp Jesus’ revolutionary teachings about love, forgiveness and the cost of discipleship?  A little of each, I suspect. 

Today there is an obvious need for increased faith on our part. We need a deep faith to reshape the landscapes of our hearts and minds so that we realize that God is God and we are the work of His hands. This is a seismic shift in the prevailing wisdom of our contemporary society that feeds us non-stop with the toxic messaging that the individual is at the center of the universe; that holds out an empty wisdom that is relentless in feeding our egos and boosting our pride that “I” deserve the best, that “I’m # 1, that “I’m” a self-made person and everybody else has to take their place behind me.  Faith is the only antidote that enables us to see the bigger picture that places God at the center of everything and to recognize a power above and beyond us…a loving and caring God who invites us to enjoy and share this world and all its riches with one another and who gives us the vision there are greater things to come.  

Faith gives us a clear vision of what lies ahead and the obstacles we must overcome to get there. Once the Apostles recognized the road they were about to travel, they asked Jesus for the Faith to carry on. A wise request and one worthy of imitation. For, the more our faith increases, the more we will understand who we are: “we are unprofitable servants” striving to do what we have been asked to do – love, forgive and serve. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

I've Been Waiting Sooooo Long

Deacon Tom writes on….

“I’ve Been Waiting Soooo Long”

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Today’s readings remind us that we are not patient people. When things are going badly, we cry out to God for help, and it never seems to come soon enough. The Prophet Habakkuk cries out for God’s help to end the violence and destruction that are plaguing the people of Judah. But God “does not intervene”.

Being faithful to God when we are experiencing sickness or despair, when we have lost someone we love, or when we are fearful of what the future holds is very difficult. Our hearts and minds struggle to feel God's presence. What we really want though, is to have our fears calmed, our financial problems resolved, our relationships mended, our illnesses cured, and for our loved ones to remain with us forever.

Difficult, perhaps, even as impossible as it seems, it is in these most painful times we are called to wait on God and to know that we have a share in that vision he told Habakkuk to write down.  What is that vision that Habakkuk wrote down on the tablets? WOW! The text doesn’t say! All it says is that the vision….. “still has its  time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint.”

Habakkuk’s vision and prophecy came to completion in the person of Jesus Christ. He entered our human drama in answer to the Prophet’s cry, “How long, O Lord?” God not only hears our cries but he even shares in our suffering and pain. It is during these very moments of intense suffering, when we are utterly helpless, that we begin to understand the very vision Habakkuk referred to, the vision that will not disappoint that God has in store for us, eternal life, where our tears will be tears of gladness and all that God has in store for us surely will not disappoint.  

To make this vision of Habakkuk’s ours we, like the Apostles, need to pray for an increase in faith so that the miniscule seeds of faith rooted deep within may sprout and blossom and enable us to realize the life that is ours to come, the reward of eternal life promised even to us unprofitable servants if only we have done all that we have been commanded.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom