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Gospel: Luke 17: 5-10
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.
“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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To some, today’s Gospel might seem a bit misleading.
“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” Jesus says, “you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and cast into the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
I’ve never wrapped my arms around a mulberry tree, but I imagine I’d look like a fool if I knelt down, said a prayer, then tried pulling it out of the earth. After a tug or two, my arms would be bleeding and my muscles burning, causing me to lose heart and give up.
Yet, how many of us have tried summoning the strength to uproot something from our lives and have failed?
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Exasperated, we turned to prayer.
We prayed to get into a particular high school or college, but we got rejected. We’ve prayed for a job, but remain unemployed. We’ve prayed for an addiction to end, yet it still tugs at our flesh. We’ve prayed for the cancer to go away, but it hasn’t.
It’s easy for us to reason that God hasn’t answered us because we’ve either not prayed hard enough or don’t have enough faith – not even the size of a mustard seed! – which can make us want to give up.
That’s why today’s Gospel passage can seem puzzling.
Jesus is not guaranteeing instant results; nor is he trying to discourage our faith. Whatever trust we place in him is precious! Often, the faith we have is enough, even if it’s the size of a tiny mustard seed, but there are two reasons why the “tree” may remain rooted in our lives.
It may be difficult to uproot, or God may allow it to remain.
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The longer a tree is alive, the deeper and more widespread its roots become. And so, it is with us. If we’re struggling with a particular habit, having nurtured it for years, then the time it takes God to uproot it limb by limb can be daunting… and painful.
If we’re praying for the grace to forgive, or to have some deep seeded anger uprooted, our heart needs to soften, allowing God to gently remove the root cause of our pain.
If we’re sick and praying to be healed, God may uproot our illness immediately through the Sacraments, or through the slow drip of medicine and science. In either case, trust is needed.
So, is there a “mulberry tree” in my life, a burden I want lifted?
Even if tiny, the seed of faith you have is enough. It’s simply a matter of watering it, nurturing it, and clinging to it patiently as God works day by day.
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Here’s another, albeit more difficult, perspective to consider. What if God does not want to remove a particular “mulberry tree” from our lives? Mysteriously, it may serve a purpose.
Saint Paul believed that all things could draw us closer to God – not only good things, but also our woes, sorrows, and trials. As he says in his Second Letter to the Corinthians:
“A thorn in my flesh was given me, an angel of Satan to beat me, to keep me from being too elated… Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
Instead of using the imagery of a mulberry tree, Paul calls it a thorn, a small speck of metaphorical wood driven into his flesh, causing him great pain.
So, what was this thorn?
We don’t know exactly, but it could’ve been a variety of things causing him to suffer.
It could’ve been the “thorn” of false preachers seeking to undo his work; the “thorn” of imprisonment; of persecution; of rejection; of physical beatings; of abandonment; or the frequent threat of death.
Paul prayed that this thorn would be dislodged from his life, but it wasn’t. God allowed him to wrestle with it because it humbled Paul and caused him to rely not upon himself, but upon Christ.
So much so that Paul claimed, “I have been crucified with Christ and the life I live is no longer my own. It is Christ living in me.”
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Whether or not God uproots the “mulberry tree” from our lives, Jesus reminds us today: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
May he give us the same grace he gave to Paul – to surrender, humbly accepting whatever may come.
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Image credits: (1) King David, WordPress (2) Time Out (3) Desert Streams Ministries