Sunday Gospel Reflection for 27th Sunday of the Year, October 2nd

by Fr Brian Maher OMI

It is always wise, I think, when reading a particular Gospel or any small section of the Bible, to pause and think of it in the context of the entire life of Jesus – his miracles, his words, his interaction with people, his death and resurrection. In my own mind, I go back to imagining that man who walked the roads and trails of Galilee and Judea, calling to mind his constant desire to heal, to forgive and to be compassionate.

So when I read today’s Gospel and the story of the landowner demanding service from his servant, I pause, and then I see Jesus, on the night before he was to die, kneeling before each of his apostles, washing their feet. I imagine Jesus, in the cool of some evening, resting after another long day being harried and jostled by those wanting to be healed or fed, talking quietly to his close band of followers and saying, “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends…” or on another occasion saying to a larger crowd, “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.”

The man, the landowner, talking in today’s story must not be seen by us as either God or Jesus himself talking. The man I meet in the Gospels, the man who walked those roads and trails of Galilee and Judea, could never, ever, treat another person as today’s Gospel suggests. No matter how hard I try, I cannot image any scenario where Jesus might say to someone, “don’t you dare even think of sitting down now. Yes, you have worked hard all day, but you need to remember your place. Tidy yourself up and serve me my meal. When I am satisfied, then you can eat yourself.” It just doesn’t ring true for me. These are not the words or sentiments of the Jesus or God I have come to know.

I am amused sometimes, when I read commentaries on the Gospels where writers try frantically to twist a word or event to fit into their perception of what Jesus might mean. When I hear, “What Jesus is really trying to say is…..” I usually stop listening! Isn’t it much better to simply say, “This is not the Jesus or God I know and love. He/she simply does not think or act like that.” Once I can say that, then I am free to look at the story through the eyes of Jesus. In other words, I can read the story WITH Jesus, letting him tell me what it’s about rather than me trying to force the words into what I would like to imagine him saying.

This is something we can only do in prayer, in an on-going conversation with Jesus. It is what Pope Francis means when he invites “…all Christians, everywhere, … to enter into a renewed personal encounter Jesus Christ.” (EG3) The invitation is not to talk about Jesus, but to talk with Jesus. To let Jesus tell us, deep within our own hearts, what his words mean and what his life was about.

If then, this story is not Jesus or God putting us in our places, reminding us that we mean nothing to him other than being insignificant servants, fit only to work and serve, then what is it saying?

The context of the story is faith; Peter saying to Jesus, “increase our faith”.

Now I could wax eloquent about the meaning of ‘faith’ forever, probably confusing and boring even myself in the process! It is, I think, much easier to say what ‘faith’ is not; it is not about miracles or asking for things. Once I begin to do that, I am either asking God to choose favourites, or I am forced to the conclusion that there is something wrong with me or my prayer. Both of these are extremely dangerous.

Let me give an example: My husband/wife/child/whoever has cancer, and I pray that God will cure them, and I have faith that he will. But after a year that person dies. Now my friend’s husband/wife/child/whoever has cancer, and my friend prays that God will cure them, and my friend has faith that he will. And after a year that person is alive and has been given the ‘all clear’. Why does this happen? We both prayed and we both had faith that God would cure our loved one, yet one dies, and one lives.

It is so easy to say, “one died and one lived because that is God’s will, and since God sees a bigger picture it is for the best.” But isn’t this God playing favourites with our lives? Isn’t it a cruel God who would want suffering for one and joy for another?

It is also too easy to say, “if one died and one lived then there must be something wrong with my prayer; either my prayer wasn’t strong enough or my ‘faith’ wasn’t deep enough. It is not such a big step after that to say that this person’s death was God punishing me in some way for some sin, or even for my lack of ‘faith’.

Much better, I think, to abandon the particular link between ‘faith’ and ‘getting what I pray for.’

‘Faith’ is defined as “complete trust and confidence in someone or something.” In the context of Religion it is defined as, “the assurance that the things revealed and promised in the Word are true.”

Faith, then, is about ‘trust in’, ‘confidence in’, and ‘assurance that’.  

The last lines of Psalm 131 are: “I am content and at peace. / As a child lies quietly in its mother’s arms / so my soul is quiet within me. / Israel, trust in the Lord, now and forever.

The child in its mother’s arms has complete trust and confidence in the arms that hold him/her. The child does not ask for food or drink or warmth or shelter or protection or love. The child simply trusts, has an inherent assurance that the person holding them wants them to have these things.

We must be the same with God. Our ‘faith’ is in God and not in God ‘doing this or doing that for me’.

We are created in the image and likeness of God. This is our faith.

We believe, are assured, that the things revealed to us by God are true. (that God loves us, walked among us in the person of Jesus, that Jesus died and rose from the dead, that God’s Kingdom is real and is among us.)

In other words, the Creed we say together every Sunday. This is our faith, nothing more, nothing less.

As we walk our journey through this life we will want and ask for many things from God. Some things we will ask for in selfishness or in pride or in vanity. Why? Because we are weak, fragile, sinful people. Other things we will ask for in love and compassion and genuine care for another. Why? Because we are also made in God’s image and likeness and created in Love. In probably all cases there will be something of both in what we ask for. All we can do is walk our journey as best we can, living, in so far as we can, the values Jesus laid before us.

And we do so in faith, trusting and assured that God wants nothing more for us than that we are happy.

We don’t, can’t and have no right to demand things of God or to test God, or to seek to make bargains with God, or to tell God how things should be for me or those I love. We can ask, and as Pope Francis said, we can “ask insistently’ (EG264), that God hear us. Doing so is part of our on-going conversation with God and it is important that we do it. But demanding or testing or in any way making our ‘faith’ dependant on God answering our request would be the height of pride and arrogance. It would be like the servant saying to his employer, “I will eat with you, but I will not serve you, I will decide what I do and don’t do.” Doing this would be entering into a false relationship between employer and servant and such a relationship could not last. The servant would be fired very quickly!

All we can do is live our lives as best we can, doing and saying what we think and feel to be right and just, loving, and caring. And we do all of this trusting, and with full confidence, in the love of the God who created us, and assured that the promises made by our God were/are/will be/ fulfilled.

Trusting is not easy. In any relationship trust is something that is built over time. It is something we must work at constantly and when lost it is not easy to regain.

Likewise, faith is not easy. In our relationship with God faith is something that is built over time. It is something we must work at constantly, and if we lose faith in God it is not easy to regain.

Peter’s prayer at the start of our Gospel is an important one: “Lord increase our faith.” It must be our prayer too.

“Lord, help me to trust and not to test, to ask and not to demand, to be assured simply because of who you are.” Amen.

Many thanks,                                                                                       

Brian