27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C
Habakkuk 1.2-3;2.2-4; 2Timothy 1.6-8,13-14; Luke 17.5-10
All three readings speak of faith and service. The first reading is part of a dialogue between God and the prophet Habakkuk. Like others before him, Habakkuk is feeling the burden of office. He complains about the injustice meted on his people and country and God’s failure to intervene. Habakkuk asks why the Lord, the God of Israel, allows this unspeakable evil to be visited upon his chosen people, the people he had loved into existence. ‘Why do you make me see wrongdoing, why do you countenance oppression?’ (Hab 1:3). The Babylonians’ attack on Israel led Habakkuk to question his faith in God’s promise that he would always be Israel’s God and stand by his chosen people.
Despite his anguish, Habakkuk does not despair or abandon hope. He decides to keep watch and wait for the Lord’s response. He is simply told not to lose heart, but to continue to trust in God, and his promise to secure justice for his people: ‘You see, anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb, but the upright will live through faithfulness’ (Hab 2:4).
This brings us to the Gospel, where Jesus says that a grain of authentic faith can achieve great things. The faith the apostles asked for, and the faith we, too, need, is not primarily a better knowledge of Christian doctrine or the teachings of the Church. It is something more important. It is trust and confidence in the presence of God, especially when things go wrong and God seems far away. It is conviction that God will never abandon us. Being a Christian and taking the Gospel seriously is, as the German Lutheran pastor, Bonhoeffer, reminds us, ‘a costly grace’. Yes, God has promised us his loving care, but he has never promised a life free of pain, difficulties, suffering, or even violent death. After all, as St Paul reminds us, ‘he did not spare his only Son, but gave him up for us all (Rom 8:32).
The second theme that emerges in our gospel reading and in the second reading is the theme of service: the kind service that does not seek any recompense/payment; the kind of service that is based, not on a contract with an employer, but on a relationship of unconditional trust and love. Jesus uses the example of the service of a slave, but a better example is that of Jesus himself. At his last Supper with his disciples, he said: ‘I am among you as one who serves’ (Mk 22:27), and, to show what he meant, he washed his disciples’ feet – the action of a slave. And he commanded us, his disciples, to do likewise.
Our second reading reminds us that our service of others is a response to a gift of God’s Spirit. This gift ‘is not a spirit of timidity’, but ‘the Spirit of power and love and self-control’ (2 Tim 1:7). So, we must ‘never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord’ (2 Tim 1:8). I will end this homily with a beautiful Eucharistic prayer, said in time of need or distress, which expresses very well the meaning of Christian service.
“Open our eyes to the needs of all. Inspire us with words and deeds to comfort those who labour and are overburdened. Keep our service of others faithful to the example and command of Christ. Let your Church be a living witness to truth and freedom, to justice and peace that all people may be lifted by the hope of a world made new. Amen.”
Fr. Alex Osei
SSC-USA Spiritual Director