Sunday the 5th of October 2025 - The Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4/ Ps 95(94)/ 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14/ Luke 17:5-10

The readings today speak to us about faith and how it should guide and shape our lives. Faith may not be easy to find in the world today; people are encouraged by the world to be self-reliant and not to rely on the hope that faith brings. The idea that we should bow down and kneel before God is an anathema to many. Ultimately self-reliance will fail, the end will come, who is there to turn to then? Our faith is a personal gift from God. We do not always understand the value of this gift or how powerful it can be. St Thomas Aquinas is attributed as saying, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

People tend to turn to faith when they find themselves in desperate situations. There are few people who do not pray if they find themselves on an aeroplane with an engine on fire. Why leave it so late? Why wait until a need is felt before turning to prayer? Prayer, conversation with God, should not be a last resort. Through faith we should seek to converse with God continually. Prayer is simply a conversation between us and God. In the second reading we are encouraged not to be ashamed to witness to our faith in the world. The gifts we received through Confirmation help us to overcome the fear of ridicule with a spirit of power, love, and self-control. Faith isn't something we make or earn, it is a pure gift, planted in us at Baptism, strengthened in Confirmation, nourished each time we receive the Eucharist.

The Apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith as if faith is something we can weigh or measure, something we can store up to be used as and when needed. The response from Jesus is a surprise. “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you”. What is the message here? The issue is not that we need more faith but that we have forgotten or never learnt how to use the faith we already have.

In the first reading Habakkuk says what many of us feel but are afraid to say aloud. Where is God when we need Him? Why doesn't He act? The prophet looks around at injustice, suffering, corruption, and God seems silent. How many times have we prayed for something that didn't come, for relationships that remained broken, for peace that failed to emerge. God's answer to Habakkuk is striking, “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay”. We must learn to trust God, that he will act, not to our timing but to his. Our faith must teach us not to demand our own schedule but to trust what we cannot see, to hope even when all seems hopeless, to wait for when God’s timing is right. Not just for us but for God’s plan to be fulfilled. Living by faith requires us to live to a different rhythm than the world around us, trusting that God has the full picture and will act in his time.

Our closest relationships do not survive rare encounters only when we are seeking help with something. They thrive on daily connections, on sharing the everyday and the wonderful, the joys and the struggles of life. Our relationship with God should be no different. The letter to Timothy in the second reading has an understanding of this. “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God”. We must not be ashamed of our faith but use it, fanning it into a flame, a flame that needs to be tended and fed through prayer, the sacraments, and best of all, through use. The gifts we received through Confirmation help us to overcome the fear of ridicule with a spirit of power, love, and self-control.

Witnessing to our faith in the world today can be challenging. We can fear being labelled as narrow-minded, judgmental, or out of touch. We might lose friends, be passed over for promotions, or be mocked and ridiculed. It feels safer to keep our faith private, compartmentalised, tucked away where it will not make anyone uncomfortable. The letter goes on to remind us that God does not mean us to have a spirit of cowardice but one of power, not hiding our faith but living it, witnessing to it, and sharing it. Not through aggressive argument, or self-righteous judgement, but by living lives that radiate the love Jesus showed us, through gentle words, respect for all, through actions that serve the needs of our fellow pilgrims through life.

The end of the Gospel today might appear harsh. The servant who has done everything asked of him receives nothing special. He has simply done his duty and nothing more. Should the master be especially grateful because the servant has done what he was expected to do? This is not about God being an ungrateful and harsh master. It is about understanding our true relationship with God and each other. All we have, our faith, our gifts, our talents, every breath we take, comes from God. When we use these gifts we do not do God a favour, we are simply living the life we were created for. The faith that can move a tree is not about the spectacular but the quiet steady faithfulness of day to day life, keeping the flame of faith alive, conversing with God, serving God in others without counting the cost or demanding reward, witnessing continually to the love of God.

The message for today is to recognise that we have the gift of faith, not to wait for some dramatic increase through a miraculous spiritual experience, but to tend it and kindle it into a fire. To develop a habit of conversation with God not ignoring him until we are in some crisis or other. Talk to God in the morning, throughout the day, in the evening. As with our friends share with God our joys, frustrations, doubts and questions. Find little ways to witness to our faith. Saying grace before a meal in public, speaking up when gossip is being spread, even inviting a friend to come to Mass, small courageous acts of faith empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Today do not ask for our faith to be increased but for the grace to use the faith we already have, to live by that faith, not someday in the future when we feel ready, not just in a crisis, but today, right now, with our mustard seed faith that can uproot trees. By loving God and serving our neighbour we become the faithful servants who are simply doing what we were created for.

God Bless Brendan.