“Lord, increase our faith.” The disciples make this plea after hearing Jesus’ teaching on discipleship. Following Jesus is indeed difficult and demanding. They have just heard him instructing that if a brother sins, they must be ready to rebuke him. And if he repents, they must be ready to forgive him, even “seven times a day.”
In response, they could only say, “Lord, increase our faith.” But Jesus pursues further by saying that being a disciple is more than just having a great faith. For even with a faith as tiny as a mustard seed, one can command a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea. The disciple is not asked to do extraordinary things but only the things that he needs to do, however small.
This is the point of the Jesus’ ensuing parable. In discipleship what is important is not doing dramatic things but doing what is expected. A disciple is a servant who serves, waits at table and does what the master commands. With no claim of entitlement, he accomplishes his task and says, “I am but an unworthy servant. I have only done what I am supposed to do.
Reflecting on the gospel, I realize the enormity of our country’s present problem which needs an equally enormous solution, more dramatic than uprooting a mulberry tree and planting it in the sea. There is need to axe those guilty of plunder and hold them responsible for their crime, replace leadership with men and women of integrity, reform many anomalous systems in governance, overhaul an entire culture, etc., etc. The task is overwhelming and requires a faith larger than a mustard seed.
We know that we need to sustain the awareness and advocacy for change by organizing public rallies and manifestations. It is encouraging to see how many alliances are being forged to better coordinate and maximize initiatives and resources. We need especially the young for their pristine idealism and enormous energy. Thankfully, their present involvement gives much hope. All this is needed and many more.
The question is: will this suffice to effect real change and solve our situation? It will surely take a miracle to overturn structures and systems and more importantly to destroy a damaged culture and replace it with a healthier one. Are we capable of such miracle. Do we have faith strong enough?
What does the gospel tell us? As disciples of Jesus we are to understand ourselves as servants to God and his plans. True, God can work wonders in us even with our mustard seed-sized faith. But will he? The answer totally depends on him. He will do his work according to his plan. He only asks of us is to participate in his plan, and our participation in God’s plans is grace – nothing more, nothing less. When we are graced enough to cooperate with God, the work we do is nothing more than our obligation to God as faithful stewards.
The question remains: will God do a miracle in our case? We know in history that he intervened to topple regimes and start new ones. These past weeks, we have been reading from the post-exilic books of the Old Testament. The 70-year captivity of the Jews suddenly ended with the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great of Persia. The bible regards Cyrus as God’s hand-picked instrument for the repatriation of the Jews and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple.
Likewise, the EDSA revolution of 1986 cannot be understood except as a divine intervention. Pictures of civilians and religious Sisters stopping tanks with rosary in hand are clearly etched in our memories even to this day. And how about the overnight change of leadership in the Senate last month (and in Congress, eventually) which caught us all by surprise. That too, I think, was nothing short of a miracle.
And so, we ask: will God do a miracle again? We can only pray and hope. With a hope born of faith that God cares and has compassion on us, his people.
But the message of the gospel is clear. Miracle or no miracle, the gospel asks us to live as we are supposed to live – as his children, humble and obedient, and as brothers and sisters, respectful and caring. When this happens the miracle will start to happen. The miracle begins with conversion. And it begins with us, with each and every one of us.