Question for the Week October 7, 2007

Do you realize the power your faith contains?

Thoughts on Readings for Sunday, October 7, 2007

Habakkuk was a questioner, just like many of us today. He sees violence and misery all around and wants to know "Why?" and "How long it will last?". I wonder if his "evening news" would have resembled ours, with violence portrayed everywhere from war-torn countries, to cities, to angry homes and workplaces. We, too, look at the misery of broken buildings and broken lives. An awful sign of the times for me was on the side of a bus where a little wide-eyed boy is saying: "Don’t shoot. I want to grow up."

But Habakkuk got a response from God : "Wait for the vision." What is the vision? Is it the coming of God’s peaceable kingdom? Waiting for a vision requires faith. In today’s Gospel, when the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith, he implies that they don’t have any. He says: "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you’d be able to uproot trees and replant them in the sea." That must have been discouraging to hear.

How "big" is my faith? How am I waiting for the vision? Ridding the world of misery and violence is too overwhelming to dwell on, but what about in my own little corner of the world? What hope can I offer to those with broken lives? What antidote to violence can I give to those consumed by anger? Having faith in the coming vision and doing my part to help bring it about seems harder than uprooting a tree. Alone, I can’t do it, but with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in me and in others in my faith community , I can at least make a start.

God, help me to stir into flame the gift of faith.
Reflection by Carol Van Billiard, OP