I was told once by some wise people that if I put my mind to something I could accomplish the task. While there have been many times that I have ignored this advise there were times when I followed it. I am not saying that I had all this faith in myself, but I knew if it was something that seemed to be where I needed to head, I would be able to get there. An example of this for me was becoming a deacon. I for years was away from the church but managed still to stay tied to my faith.
I was willing to explore other Christian faiths because I believed that the Catholic faith had too many rules. Yet in those explorations I actually found the opposite, other faiths had more rules that seemed less inclusive and more judgmental. I know that there are plenty of judgmental folks who are in the Catholic faith as well, but the concept of the faith is that we are to leave the judging of others to God. The path to the diaconate was a very winding road for me which included many places where I could have been led astray.
My faith was called into question along the journey, not only by myself, but by those who knew me best. The perfect example of this was when my family was at lunch after ordination my two uncles, one was my Godfather and the other was my confirmation sponsor, looked at each other and made an interesting comment. They said they never imagined that one of our family would be ordained, especially me since they knew my long winding path to that point.
You see my faith was only the size of a mustard seed and I didn’t think that was enough, but as Christ reminds us today the mustard seed grows into a large bush, large enough to have birds nest and rest in it. You see a mustard seed which is only about 2 millimeters in diameter can grow as large as 30 ft. tall. Pretty amazing. That is not the only amazing part about the small size of the seed as Jesus mentions in a later chapter of Matthew that “He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)
We are all called to use the faith we have to unite people not to divide them, that is what all Christians should do. This means that we will not always agree with others, but they are also men and women of God who deserve our respect. If we judge the person based on their actions we have a tendency to lose perspective and respect for them. This has led our country and our church to do some things which are not in keeping with what the faith teaches us. Our Declaration of Independence as well as our faith have a premise in common. ALL men are created equal. Now this statement does not exclude women because as we see Jesus throughout the Gospels treats women with the same respect he does the men of his time. His time in history was certainly not kind to women and that attitude still prevails in some people today, women being second class citizens. They thought that was morally ok, we know better if we pay attention to the Gospels.
Christ also treated those who were different than he, by the color of their skin, their nationality, or any other difference with this same type of respect. This type of respect can lead to the end of racism if we all follow his lead. This means we are all called to raise up those who are on the periphery with no concern about whether they look like us, talk like us, or move in the same political circles as we do.
This respect for the other is what has made this country a beacon for the world, even though from the inside we know we as a country did not always follow what we professed to the outside. Based on what we see today we still do not necessarily act in the way we should. The rest of the world is watching us at this time and seeing the internal tensions that were always under the surface. They also see this tension in the Church as we go back and forth with each other about the “right” way to practice our faith.
The reading from Wisdom today that while God may be the source of Justice in the world he is a compassionate God; “But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you. And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; and you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.”
We should have hope in God, that he will make sure that justice is served and that those who believe in him and follow him will be with him for eternity. This hope in God should allow our seeds of faith to grow, just as yeast allows dough to rise.
If we continue to grow in our faith, especially during times of trial we know that we are being guided by the Spirit during our time of weakness. Through these current times of trial and strife that we are going through with the protests, riots and the pandemic we need to grow closer to God, not move farther away. Satan wants us to move away, but if we use the seed of faith we have, no matter how big it is, the Spirit will keep our hope alive and will help guide us to the point where we can grow closer to him.
This way we will be like the wheat that grew within the weeds, we will be chosen to go to God, not like the weeds which are put in the fire. The faith we have is meant to be shared, not in a judgmental way, but in a way that shows others that we are following God’s path and that is the path of unity not division. When we take our mustard seed size faith and allow it to grow, we will then be able to shine like stars for those around us. If the entire church does this, then we begin to change the world as light will always overcome darkness.
We need to remember one last thing. “But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he will still remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:12,13)
Now let us go forward showing the world the light from Christ by living our Christian faith, helping to remind people who have denied Him, that He is the way.