[Pearls Episode 139: Preparing for Sunday.]
In this week’s Pearls of the Interior Life, as we start setting our mind on Sunday’s Gospel reading (in the postscript), we consider the disciples’ plea, “Lord, increase our faith.”
That’s a high-quality request. There’s never a wrong time for us to follow suit.
Faith is mostly a gift from God – we get our first installment at Baptism. But St. Cyril of Alexandria reminds us that we need to do our part by “maintaining confidence and faith in God with all our power.”
With all our power is a pretty sweeping statement. But then, the Saints didn’t become Saints by being people of half measures…
Jesus, as we should expect, gives us a simple and effective way to use “all our power” to take an inventory of where we might be lacking in “maintaining confidence and faith in God.” And that is the Parable of the Sower – in which, Jesus gives us something of a spiritual X-ray device.
You’ll recall from that parable, the seed (the Word of God) can find four different conditions when it lands in us:
- The hardened path
- Rocky ground
- Among thorns
- Rich soil
St. John Chrysostom, in a homily on this parable, give us three keys for applying it as our spiritual X-ray:
- All aspects of our soul are reflected in those four conditions – they encompass all aspects of the human spiritual condition – there is nothing in us that they can’t reveal with some reflection.
- St John also reminds us that we can have these types of conditions in us in different ways. We can be a hodge-podge of conditions 1-3. But we’re meant to become 100% condition #4.
- We must be strong in all areas. It calls to mind the maxim that a fence around 3 sides of your house does not make you 75% safe.
In this week’s episode and our follow-up messages we’ll look closer at applying this X-ray.
For now, let’s start with the end in mind. As noted above, St. John Chrysostom reminds us that Jesus desires us to all have a soul of “rich soil” and a fruitful, abundant life – “When Jesus had spoken of the various ways of destruction, He then speaks of the good earth, so as not to allow His disciples o become despondent; giving them the hope of a change of heart, and showing them how they can tum away from the other paths to the one with rich soil.”
So, not only does Jesus provide the X-ray, but He’ll provide the prescription for whatever it reveals.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Luke Lk 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.'”