A homily by Don Pratt
Sunday, October 7, 2007 -- 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle C)
Readings:
First Reading: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Psalm: Psalm 95
Second Reading: Second Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
Just preceding today’s Gospel Reading from Luke 17, Jesus had just warned his disciples about the dangers of sinning against others, or causing others to sin, and that they must forgive those who sin against them – unconditionally – no matter how many times they cause harm and ask for forgiveness. What a tall order! We know in our own experience how difficult that can be. The apostles responded with a request of Jesus, “Increase our faith.”
I imagine that this is a common request. Many of us in our prayer lives ask that we be better Christians; we ask that our faith in God become stronger. And often we make the mistake in believing that in order for this to happen we must do dramatic things. That our lives must change significantly. And sometimes that’s true. But it’s not in the dramatic things that make our faith strong; it is in the simple ways that we believe in God.
There was a man named John who from the very beginning of his life, seemed to be destined for great things. When he was born and baptized, his mother who had great faith, named him John in honor of John the Baptist.
His father was a wealthy merchant and liked to indulge John. John had anything that he wanted. And he took full advantage of it as he was growing up.
It was his mother’s hope that he would choose a religious life. On the other hand, John’s father wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a merchant. However, as John grew-up – he lived life as a teenager -- and then a young man just like many of us as we grew up: rebellious; resistant to our parents wishes for us; “sowing ours oats.” John was known for his drinking and carousing with buddies. He was a playboy bachelor of his time. He spent money lavishly – wore fine clothes – he was a true ‘metrosexual.’ John had a dry sense of humor and just loved to sing. I’m sure he closed many bars cracking jokes and singing pub songs.
Although John spent his wealth abundantly, he was also known for giving to the poor. One time he was teased mercilessly because he ran into a poor beggar and gave him all the money he had in his pockets, making his father furious.
When John was 20 years old, he joined the military and ended-up fighting in an on-going war with a neighboring city. At one point he was taken as a prisoner of war for over a year. When he was released, he became ill and suffered a mysterious fever for a long time. It was during this time while he was captive and later suffering illness that he started to become introspective. He started to take inventory of his life. While it may not have been one of those drastic life-changing experiences for him, I think that it may have planted a seed of change. However this time for soul searching was short lived, for he returned to his “guy gone wild” lifestyle.
He pursued his career in the military and actually did well for himself. He got promoted up the chain of command. Before a particular mission, it is said that John had a dream. He dreamed of a great hall that was hung high with armament marked with crosses, and he heard the words, “These are for you and your soldiers.” He took this to mean that he would be a great warrior and leader.
But then he became ill again. And while being sick he had a second dream that told him to go home. And for what ever reason, he did.
He went back to carousing with his friends, but something was different about John. His heart wasn’t into it, and his friends noticed. Some thought that maybe he fell in love with a woman, and was thinking of getting married. And when his friends confronted him with it, John replied, “I’m about to take a wife of surpassing fairness.” We would learn later that he would refer to this “wife” again, as “lady poverty.”
John started to feel the burden of his wealth and excess. More and more he would give his money and possessions away. He also started to give his family’s possessions away too. He took linens and supplies from his father’s business to refurbish a poor, run-down church. While his friends chided him and his father scolded him for “such foolishness” – his life was changing as this was the beginning of a life of faith building through charity and living a simple life.
John’s prayer life was building along with his faith. He would often go to the woods to pray and meditate, and to read scripture. It was soon after that he took scripture to heart and began to “leave all things behind to follow Jesus” from the Book of Matthew 10:9. And he gave up everything to build a new community of faith.
I’m sure you’ve figured it out about whom I am talking about. John is from 10th century Italy. Although he was baptized with the name John…or more specifically…Giovanni, his father changed his name to Francesco when he was still an infant. His name was Francesco di Bernardone…or as we know him as St. Francis.
Most of us have heard much about St. Francis giving up everything for faith. And I know that when we think of faith building, and we think of St. Francis, we sometimes confuse the “quantity of faith” vs. “the quality of faith.”
St. Francis’ example of faith wasn’t just that he gave up everything for it and that it became a part of his everyday life, but more so in his confidence that it was God’s will that he have a simple life and to help others. That’s what Jesus was talking about in the Gospel reading. When the apostles asked Jesus to “increase our faith” they were hoping that somehow Jesus would pull out a bucket of faith from his pocket and dump it on them and then they could have lots of it. Instead He said that it’s not about how much faith…but the quality of that faith: “If only you had little bit of true faith, a little bit of true confidence in God that through God all things are possible, than you’d be able to move mountains” is like what he was saying. And St. Francis had that faith. That just with a simple life, doing simple things he could move mountains. And I know it can be hard to have such faith. St. Francis made it look easy; of course we know that it wasn’t.
Habakkuk had it hard. He was facing human rights violations in Judah, the poor were being persecuted, and there was lawlessness and anarchy. People were suffering and dying. That’s the “violence” that was referred to in today’s scripture. And so Habakkuk was questioning about whether or not God really had a handle on things. How could God allow such suffering? Would God intervene?
God assured him that things were going to be okay, but that he needed to have faith. He told Habakkuk to write down God’s assurances and to hold on to it. That was God’s promise to Habakkuk. The things that were happening, were happening for a reason, but in the end order would be restored.
We need to remember that God has a timeline. It begins with the beginning of eternity and ends with the ending of eternity – and it’s incomprehensible to us. Our lives represent a small “blip” on the timeline. I know that sometimes we think that our lives represent a bigger portion of the timeline because of Jesus’ love for us. Jesus can make us feel pretty important. But the reality is that our lives are pretty small on the timeline. And from our perspective, it is impossible to see what God’s plan is for us. It’s hard to know what lies in the future. However God has a clear vision of it -- God can see the timeline from both ends. God is saying that we need to have faith and trust in God’s will. We’re in God’s hands -- safe and sound. Habakkuk learned that fact. And St. Francis knew it. They both knew it simply by their strong faith in God.
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