Commentary
Sunday, 10/6/2019, Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Be Patient—God’s Love Is
First Reading Commentary: Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4
The prophet Habakkuk prayed saying, “How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen!” The time that Habakkuk makes his prayer is during the Babylonian exile. Habakkuk’s question suggests that God has abandoned His people and he is questioning God’s decision.
We always look for an immediate answer to our prayers and there is nothing wrong with that. But when we pray, we have to be patient because God works on His time and not our time. Hence the saying, “God does not do things on our time but He is always on time.” That is what the LORD said back to Habakkuk. God said, “Write the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time…if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.”
How many times have we told our children to wait or to be patient? We have every intention of honoring their request. Just not right at the moment that they ask. Sometimes our children have a hard time understanding that. But once again, we have to remember that we are God’s children and sometimes God treats us in the same manner that we treat our children. Being patient in waiting for our prayers to be answered is more than a sign of faith. It is what God tells us to do just like we tell our children.
Our faith will carry us through whatever difficulties and hard times we may have. And when we are patient, we prove our faith. When we do not have a hissy fit and throw a temper tantrum because God is not acting fast enough for us, we demonstrate our trust in Him. But when we do act up, God will correct us. That is what God meant when He said to Habakkuk, “The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live. It is said, “Don’t make rash decisions.” So it follows, don’t be rash with God. In other words, hang in there and stop acting up because everything is going to be alright.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:4a that love is patient. We all know that God is love. Therefore, God is patient. We should all keep that in mind especially when we sin. Instead of condemnation, God offers His mercy and forgiveness if we confess and repent.
Have No Shame
Second Reading Commentary: 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
It is Paul who ordained Timothy and in this part of his letter, he told Timothy to take the gift of his ministry and stir flame into it. Paul was telling Timothy to preach from the heart and to carry out his ministry with passion and conviction. Paul was also encouraging Timothy to use his gifts from the Holy Spirit because they contained power and love and self-control.
We all know that faith is what we believe. We know that faith is powerful and that it is a demonstration of our love for God. We do not always associate self-control with faith. But having true faith means that we do more than, believe. It means that we follow God and surrender ourselves to Him completely. As a result, we obey His commandments and it takes self-control to do that and therefore, faith does involve self-control.
Paul said to Timothy, “So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me.” Paul knew that Timothy would come under fire and be persecuted by non-believers and that persecutors would try to shame Timothy for preaching the Good News of the Gospel.
Paul also said, “but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Let us not forget that Jesus told us Himself in Luke 14:27 that in order to follow Him, we have to pick up our cross and carry it.
The bad news is that we have to pick that cross up every day because our faith is challenged each and every day. Whether it be the evil one with his temptations or the evil one working through others to torment us and persecute us, we must pick up our cross every day.
The good news is Paul’s message to Timothy. Through the Holy Spirit, God gave us everything that we need to pick up our crosses in life. Jesus even promised that if we bring our burdens to Him that He would carry them because His yoke is light. Therefore, we have no reason to be timid in professing our faith or sharing it with others.
All of us have had the experience of someone persecuting us for our faith by trying to make us ashamed of it. Some people hide their faith to escape such an experience. But Paul says not to do that. He told Timothy and he is telling us to use the strength that God gave us to stand up to the pressure. After all, there is no reason why anyone should be ashamed of God their Creator.
Paul said, “Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.” We need all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to stay true to our faith. Gifts are free and gifts from the heart do not have to be asked for. But gifts have no value unless they are received. The Holy Spirit’s gifts are there for us and all we have to do is accept them.
We Got the Power
Gospel Commentary: Luke 17:5-10
God can make something out of nothing. Those of us who are regular church goers have heard that preached before. But today, Jesus tells us that just a tiny bit of faith will make great things happen. With just a tiny bit of faith, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
Have you ever asked yourself why it is possible for saints to perform miracles that you cannot? I have and discovered that there are two parts to the answer. First, I realized that it is not a matter of can or cannot. It is a matter of being able to or not being able to. Think about it. There is a difference.
Something which cannot be done is not possible at all. But if we simply do not have the tools or the knowledge that we need, we are not able to do something which in fact can be done. That made me realize the second part of the answer. My faith is not on the same level as the saints who perform miracles.
The Apostles asked Jesus for an increase in faith and Jesus told them that with faith the size of a mustard seed, they could command a mulberry bush to be uprooted and plant itself in the sea and it would obey. In other words, Jesus was telling the Apostles and He is telling us that with faith, we do have the power to perform miracles.
My problem is that the instant that I even think of performing such an act, my human mind with all of its worldly thinking will say, “Now you know darn well that bush cannot be planted in the sea.” My faith is blocked by the weakness in my faith caused by thinking in terms of this world and not God’s world. As a result, I am not able to perform such a miracle.
Jesus knows that this is true of anyone who is unable to perform miracles. That is why He welcomes us to ask for an increase in faith and tells us today that it does not take much to achieve great things.
God gave us the power to make anything happen with just a tiny bit of faith. The problem is that most people have a mental block in believing that.
I have heard it said, “What the mind can conceive, the man can achieve.” Because of our God-given faith, that is a very true statement. In this gospel, Jesus is telling us to embrace that faith and He is telling us to do that with gratitude.
Jesus wants us to be able to say that because of our faith, we achieved great things in life because we were obliged to do it. The operative word there is: obliged which means that by way of our gratitude for being given the faith to achieve, we were obligated to achieve.
Faith is power! We got the power because God gave it to us. Jesus wants us to know that, believe that, embrace that and use the power of faith. Just keep in mind that it is not our power but God's power working through us.
