Daily Reading
First Reading
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing, and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.”
Psalm
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
Second Reading
2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.
Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
Gospel Reading
Luke 17:5–10
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”
Reflection
Friends, in our Gospel, Jesus tells us that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea. What is being communicated here is something simple: Faith is power. When our lives are aligned to God, we become conduits of enormous power.
Attachments block us and break this flow. An attachment is anything that you convince yourself you cannot live without. This idea is central to the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola. What are the attachments that block the divine power from flowing through us? Wealth, pleasure, honor, power.
Look at the one that we hold up as the model of power. Notice, please, how comfortable he looks; notice how many “nice things” he has around him. And remark how popular he is, how everyone is singing his praises. And notice how successful he is, what a brilliant career he’s had!
Love what Jesus loved on the cross, and despise what he despised, said Thomas Aquinas. That is the key to a spiritually successful life and to the unleashing of divine power.