#Faith #Humility (Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycle C)

In today’s Gospel we see the Apostles asking the Lord to increase their faith. They understood that faith is a gift. No one buys it, earns it, or wins it. It comes from God, and one can only do what the Apostles did: pray for the gift of faith and for it to increase when it is weak. Today the Lord is telling us, “You guys have plenty of faith to accomplish all I ask, so stop making excuses for yourselves.” Start believing! Here’s the deal. If we want our faith to increase, we must act upon it, we must exercise it, we must trust, take the plunge, have confidence. Our capacity to trust increases when we exercise it. Faith is a lot like our muscles, it gets stronger when we exercise it. We must first trust in order to trust more. Today we need to take hold of the truth that we do have faith – we already have the gift of faith given to us at Baptism and Confirmation and nourished by the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Lord is telling us that we really don’t need more faith, but that we should rely more on the faith we have already been given. If we would only dare to USE this faith, we will experience amazing things happen in our lives and we’ll see God’s will be accomplished through us. True faith requires that we admit that we are not fully in control of our lives #Humility It requires that we have a confident trust in the power of God working in our lives #Faith It compels us to grow in an understanding that the more I surrender to God, the greater things can happen #Trust. In today’s Gospel we also hear Jesus teach about the nature of service to God. He cautions us to know our place in God’s plans, which is so essential to exercising the faith we’ve been given. Even when God works wonders through us, using our mustard seed-sized faith, we must not seek praise for ourselves. Our participation in God’s plans must be as that of a humble servant. When we are given the grace to cooperate with God, the work we do is nothing more than our obligation to God as faithful stewards. We simply have to do what God tells us to do…what we are literally obliged to do…and then he can work powerfully through us. Today as we approach Our Lord in Holy Communion, let us offer ourselves to Jesus unconditionally and in humble service so that we can more fully experience the joy of the faith we’ve already been given. Let us ask him for an attitude of faith as we serve him in one another and let us understand that in doing so we are simply doing what we are obliged to do. To God be all the glory now and forever. Amen • AE