Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 141

Lectionary: 141

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.

Today's gospel comprises two teaching which may seem unrelated. The first involves the disciples' pious request, "Increase our faith." and Jesus' remark about that confident faith which commands mulberry trees to be uprooted and planted in the sea. That sounds like a non sequitur. How does replanting fresh water land trees in a salt sea make sense, even if it's done by magic? Perhaps Jesus regarded their request as nonsense and replied with more nonsense. 

But he adds something about increasing one's faith, which amounts to, "Do it!" The servants who expect the master's excessive gratitude for their performing routine duties are kidding themselves. They have not realized who they are in this household.  

Seasoned and mature servants faithfully perform their duties. If they need recognition they are satisfied by working conscientiously. What more would they want? 

The Buddhist have an expression for that: "Quit trying. Quit trying not to try. Quit quitting." Novices aim to please the Lord. They try diligently, anxiously, scrupulously and laboriously to get everything just right, and -- when the work is done -- they are sure they have failed. Despite their best efforts they're convinced they didn't try hard enough. As if trying is all that it takes 

Beginning to appreciate whom they serve, they get the feeling they're trying too hard. You don't have to kill yourself to please a  God who is already happy! Relax! But old anxieties don't evaporate overnight; they resurge again and again. And so they keep trying -- and trying not to try. If my God is happy, who is this god who is not happy, and why does he arouse such dread in me?
That's the self, of course. Self still wants recognition, and cries continually, "Hey! What about me?" 

There comes a day when we quit quitting. Do mulberry trees uproot themselves and gallop off to the salt sea at our approach? No. Do mountains soar in the air and plummet into the ocean, on top the mulberry trees? Not exactly. 

But the world does change in God's time, due in part to our presence. For that we may praise God. 

Frankly, moving mountains is child's play compared to the challenge of letting the neglected self atrophy.
When that happens we will see mountains leaping as our Earth is restored to livability. When? Not within our lifetimes. Not within a foreseeable future. But the faithful neither expect nor need results. They want only to do their duties, and let God handle the rest.