1.
Hab1:2-3,2:2-4
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2. 2Tim1:6-8
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Gospel:
Luke17:5-10
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"
Lord increase our faith"
There is this story of
a young boy and a passenger in a sailing luxury ship. The ship was nearly
sinking because of a very strong typhoon. Everybody was in panic, grabbing life
jackets and lifeboats from each other. Meanwhile, the young boy was sitting in
a small chair as if nothing took place. He enjoyed watching the big waves. One adult
passenger approached him and asked: " Boy, it seems that you don't mind
what is happening? Don't you know that few minutes from now we are going to
sink? " Excuse me, sir," the boy answered. " The captain of this
ship is my father. And because he is my father, I trust him. Why am I
afraid?"
The parable in the
gospel does not talk to us about a picture of God but this presents to us the
kind of attitude we have for our God in our journey of faith: first is
believing just a little; second is trusting in the Lord and third is serving as
a duty.
Faith can be looked
into main three dimensions: faith as believing, faith as trusting, and faith as
obeying/doing. I don't know if this is a coincidence that when we make sign of
the cross, we touch our fore head when we say, ' in the name of the Father,' it
is because we know something about our God that is why we believe in Him. We
know Him, even in a very limited way, by reading our Bible, listening to
homilies, knowing the doctrines and dogmas of our catholic faith, when we read
spiritual writing and many more.
What about when we say,
' and of the Son?' We touch our hearts
because we trust in Him. Prayer is showing our trust in Him. Worship is another
thing that we show our trust in God. Worship brings pleasure to God because
prophet Jeremiah says: " The Lord is pleased only with those who worship
him and trust in his love,"( Jer1:5). Anything we do that brings that
brings pleasure to God is an act of worship. However, worship is not for our
benefit. It is because I heard so many of us saying, after they had attended Mass,
that they got nothing out of it. For example the choir is not good, the sound
system is not good, the priest is boring and so on and so forth. Are we
worshipping for the right motive or are we worshipping for the wrong reason.
Worship is not for our own benefit. We worship not for our own joy but for the
joy of God. We worship not to please ourselves but to please God.
Let us ask ourselves
that if this is the case, then what belongs to us? if you can recall the gospel
passage when the seventy two disciples return from their mission they rejoiced
of their success. But Jesus said to them that they should not rejoice because
of their success, but they should rejoice because their names are written in
heaven. ( Luke 10:17-20). This is what we can have and this is what is most
important.
When we say , ' and of
the Holy Spirit,' we touch our two shoulders from left to right because we want
to serve. Have you ever come across
these sayings?: " use things and love people" and not vice versa. Or
shout at animals and talk to people" and not the other way around. It is
because there are those especially who well of that they shout at their
drivers, maids, employees however, they talk softly to their dogs and other pet
animals. We are actually created, saved,
called and commanded to serve God. Our purpose of being created by God is
not to consume resources like: to eat, to breath, and to take up space. God
created us to make difference with our life. We are not in this world in order
to get the most out of life as many best-selling books had said and advised.
This is not the reason why God made us. We are purposely created to add life on
earth and not just take from it. God wants us to give something back. Let us look
at it in details from the Purpose of Driven life ( pp.227-231)
by Rick Warren. Rick Warren says that and will add:
We are created to serve
God. We are created for a life of good deeds which He has already prepared for
us to do( Eph 2:10b). The good deeds are our service. Whenever we serve others
in anyway, we are actually serving God ( Matt 25:34-45).
We are saved to do His
holy work not because we deserve it, but because that was His plan (2Tim1:9).
We are saved for service. We serve God out of deep gratitude for what he has
done for us. We owe him our lives. Through salvation our past has been
forgiven, our present is given meaning and our future is secured. If we have no
love and desire to serve others then we have to ask if Christ is really in our
hearts. A saved heart is one that wants to serve.
Have we ever asked
ourselves this question that why God
doesn't just immediately take us to heaven
the moment we accept his grace? Why does he leave us in a fallen world?
He leaves us here to fulfill his purposes. Once we are saved, God intends to
use us for His goals. God has a ministry for you in His Church and a mission
for us in the world.
We are called to serve
God. Being called by God is not only being clergy, pastors and religious,
however, every Christian is called to serve ( Eph4:4-14). Regardless of your
job or career, we are called to full time Christian service. A non-serving
Christian is a contradiction in terms. If we are using our God-given abilities
to help others, we are fulfilling our calling.
We are commanded to
serve God. Jesus says: " Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the
messiah, did not come to be served but to serve and to give
life.....(Matt 20:28). For us Christians, service is not optional, something to
be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare
the time. It is the heart Christian life. Jesus came to
"serve" and to "give" and these two verbs should define our
life on earth too.
Thus when we make the
Sign of the Cross, we say: " I
believe," by touching our head;
" I trust," by touching our hearts; and " I serve"
by touching our two shoulders from left to right. Mother Teresa once said: " Holy giving
consists in doing God's work with a smile."
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Chapisha Maoni