27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time-C

I Reading Habakkuk 1:2-3;2:2-4: : The upright man will live by his faithfulness. The prophet complains that God does not hear or act; God responds and asks for faith and patience.

II Reading: 2 Timothy 1:6-8.13-14: Never be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord. God gives the Holy Spirit, empowering us to bear witness to our faith and persevere in the face of difficulty.

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10: If only you had faith. It is not the quantity of faith that matter, but the quality of one’s relationship with God.

The Gospel reading is in two part, the first dealing with the power of faith and the second with the insufficiency of works, the latter being found only in Luke.

The first reading contains the prophet’s complaint to God that He does nothing about the evil ways of His people. The God tells Habakkuk to write down the prophetic message he is about to receive: their enemies are puffed up with pride, but the righteous man will live by his faithfulness. This sentence became the key stone of Paul’s Letter to the Romans 1:17.

The Christian disciple must have faith as small as a mustard seed to perform a great miracle in life on the earth. Having faith is essential-one of most powerful forces in the world (v.5-6). In the readings of today we find the prophet Habakkuk, timothy and the disciples, facing for different reasons, the problems which we all face from time to time: put a severe test, their faith threatened to crumble. All Christians down the centuries whose faith is put to the test. Finally genuine humility leads a person to faith in Jesus Christ. Faith implies faithfulness in his/her service and complete trust in Him all the times. Faith in Christ, is God’s free gift so we don’t have right to claim it. Faith in Christ is our source of strength, greatest treasure and a light that lights our way through the darkness of this world; but we must keep it burning brightly (2Tim 1:6), keep on adding to it the oil of prayer and love. Faith in Christ thrives in a humble heart: pride destroys faith and ruins whatever we do at the service of the Lord. Faith in Christ is a seed which yields a harvest of eternal happiness at our death. God is faithful. Habakkuk. Timothy, the apostles, millions of Christians who died in the Lord, never regretted having put their faith in Christ; neither shall we.

Our model of faith is Mary, the Mother of Jesus: she conceived him in humility, allowed herself to be guided by the Spirit within her, served him in total faithfulness and put her trust in him in the many dark moments of her life. This is why we call Mary, “the perfect Christian.” We are servants, unpaid as of old, our service is our bounded duty.

Luke 17:7-10: We are merely servants:

We have done no more than our duty.

1. Obeying God is a duty, not a service (v.7-10)

a. The illustration: A servant is a slave who serves his master

          1) to serve all day

          2) to serve all evening

          3) to serve until all others have retired

          4) to serve whether or not one is thanked or appreciated

b. The believer is to serve and obey until all of God’s commandments are done

c. The believer is to be humble in his service for the Lord

Thought: The servant serves his/her master; the believer is a servant and a servant is a slave who serves his/her Master (Rom 1:1). The believer is to serve and obey the commandments of God until all the works is done.

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