Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 6, 2019 - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Habb 1:2-3; 2:2-4; 2 Tim 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10]I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord........but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. [2 Timothy] The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. [Luke]
Jesus replies to the apostles' request with a dramatic bit of hyperbole. The mustard seed and the mulberry tree remind us that even if we feel that our faith is puny, it has the strength to move much bigger things (or people)! The same idea is present in St. Paul's encouragement to Timothy. He asks Timothy to "stir in to flame the gift of God....," an image that can remind us of raking hot ashes to get the fire going again. This takes courage, as St. Paul reminds us, and that courage is just waiting for us to recognize its presence.
Where and how does one find that courage? The "where" is simple - it is inside each one of us and inside a good faith community. The "how" is something we can do for each other. It's "en-courage-ment." I live in a Dominican community that serves a very large state university. This can be an intimidating environment to young faith. The Catholic church and Catholic faith make big targets and the temptation to keep one's faith "personal" and avoid overt expression can be strong. Our Catholic student center does act as a kind of "home" - a place "to be Catholic" - but eventually a student has to face professors and peers and a culture that offers options that are clearly incompatible with the traditions of Catholicism. This isn't just true in this environment, it is true almost anywhere.
For our students who are seniors, we offer a program called ESTEEM, which offers ways and means to live their faith once they graduate and move into either the world of work or graduate school. One of their biggest challenges, once they graduate, is to find a faith community of the strength that they experience at our Catholic student center. This is where all of us come into play. Is our parish welcoming and open to new young members? Are we encouraging them and one another in living our faith? Or have we fallen into a kind of Catholic "rut" that emphasizes ritual over service without realizing that these are two sides of the same coin?
As I travel less for ministry now, I see my own task as one of "encouragement" to our student parishioners and to those in the parish who live outside the university environment. My hope is that the encouragement can become contagious. We have received a spirit of "power, love and self-control," and it can be a gift that keeps on giving if we take hold of what we have already received and help others to recognize what they already have! AMEN